Another Harlem Church Goes Up For Sale: See Inside

HARLEM, NY — A historic Harlem church building has been put up for sale and could be redeveloped, making it the neighborhood's latest house of worship to confront an uncertain future.

The St. Luke's Episcopal Church building on West 141st Street and Convent Avenue has been listed for $12 million. Its seller is the church parish itself, which now holds services at St. Martin's Church on Lenox Avenue following a merger.

Touted as a prime "redevelopment opportunity," the 15,000-square-foot lot could accommodate a building covering as much as 60,975 square feet, according to the listing. The church is not landmarked, though it sits within the Hamilton Heights Historic District.

St. Luke's was completed in 1895, designed by the architect Robert H. Robertson — famed for designing grand towers like the Park Row Building and 150 Nassau St. in Lower Manhattan.

In a 2002 "Streetscapes" column in the New York Times, Christopher Gay wrote admiringly of the church's "deep red brownstone," and quoted the historian Andrew Dolkart, who called its steep side elevation on West 141st Street "one of the most powerful architectural statements in New York."

It sits across the street from Hamilton Grange, the former estate of Alexander Hamilton, and the two buildings' histories are wrapped up in one another. When St. Luke's moved up to Harlem from Greenwich Village in the late 1800s, it initially moved into the Grange, then relocated the mansion two blocks south to save it from demolition, as documented by the Curious Uptowner, which first reported on the church listing along with the New York Times.

Photos of the church interior included in the listing show its high, vaulted ceilings and its large, century-old organ — though the images also show chipping paint on the ceilings, hinting at its decay. In recent years, the church has been shrouded in scaffolding, and city records show that neighbors have complained about drug sales and filthy conditions under the dark construction sheds at the apparently abandoned building.

The church's sale is being handled by Dwane Omar Jones, Joseph French Jr. and Kodi Traver of Marcus & Millichap.

If sold, St. Luke's will join other Harlem churches like the All Saints Catholic Church on East 129th Street, Child's Memorial Temple on Amsterdam Avenue, Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church on West 126th Street, and Grace Congregational Church on West 139th Street, all of which have changed hands in recent years.

In some cases, the church buildings were later demolished to make way for housing, while others are being converted to new uses — like All Saints, which will soon begin a new life as a charter school.

Have a Harlem news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.