Grace Episcopal Church on City Island, Bronx: a National Historic Place since 1849

Full text

Many New Yorkers will be familiar with Manhattan’s Grace Church, a French Gothic masterpiece built in 1846–1847 on Broadway. Or, if they’re from Brooklyn, perhaps they’re more acquainted with the Grace Church on Hicks Street, which was built in 1847 when the other Grace Church’s then-new location proved too far a trip for some faithful. However, for parishioners in the Bronx, specifically in the small seafaring community of City Point, Grace Episcopal Church on City Island Avenue is the one true bearer of the popular name – and this National Historic Place just so happens to have been built around the same time as its two more famous namesakes, in 1849.

Before the construction of the church, the Episcopal residents of City Island didn’t have much in the way of choices; Union Chapel on the corner of Tier and City Island Avenue was a Methodist institution. But that didn’t stop Reverend Cornelius Winter Bolton from offering afternoon services there every second Sunday of the month. Eventually he would move to Maryland and the services would stop, but he returned to lead the congregation, which was looking for a new location. Fortunately, his sister Adele had also taken an interest, and managed to raise money for the construction of a new church.

More of the family chipped in on designing elements of the new house of worship, with Cornelius’s brother John creating a stained glass work above the altar picturing ‘The Trial of Christ.’ (This would later be removed and then restored in 2016.) Finally, in keeping with its nautical surroundings, the building was constructed by local builders from the David Carll shipyard, in a style called “Carpenter Gothic,” reflected in the bold wooden rafters that soar over the nave.