Historic Harlem Church Is Sold To Developer, Pastor Says

HARLEM, NY — A historic church known as the "St. Patrick's of Harlem" has been sold to a real estate developer, its administrator said this week — but its landmark status will protect the building from being wiped away.

The All Saints Catholic Church on East 129th Street and Madison Avenue was sold last week to developers CSC Coliving for $11.35 million, Father Gregory Chisholm, the church's administrator and priest at nearby St. Charles Borromeo, told Patch in an email Monday.

Because the church is a designated city landmark, the developers must "maintain the complete exterior of the property," Chisholm wrote.

"The terms of sale also require that the use of the property must respect the legacy of All Saints as a place of worship in perpetuity," he added.

The church's interior, on the other hand, is not protected, and may have met a different fate. Michael Henry Adams, a neighborhood historian and preservationist who pushed to save the stained glass windows, oaken pews and marble altar, said he learned the elements were ripped out sometime last year while the church was being deconsecrated.

"The extraordinary pews are gone, the stained glass windows with figures are gone, the statues are gone, the altars are gone," Adams said.

The Archdiocese of New York, which had ultimate authority over the church before its sale, did not respond to a request for comment.

"Harlem's Cathedral"

Built starting in the 1880s, All Saints was designed by James Renwick Jr., who was also the architect behind St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

For more Harlem news, subscribe to the email newsletter from Harlem Patch.

"Among the many churches he designed during his long career, the Church of All Saints has been called his best," the city Landmarks Preservation Commission wrote in a report in 2007, when it won landmark designation along with its adjoining school and parish house.

At its peak, All Saints hosted thousands of congregants each week and "deserved to be identified as Harlem's Cathedral," Chisholm told Patch in January.

By 2015, however, attendance had declined steeply, and the church's parish merged with the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo, a separate Black Catholic parish in Harlem.

Starting in 2018, potential buyers — both religious and secular — expressed interest in the building. Some sought to keep it as a house of worship, while others considered business, educational or artistic uses, Chisholm said. By January, a sale was imminent, the New York Post reported, but a buyer had not been named.

The winning buyer, CSC Coliving, specializes in shared, low-rent housing, and has renovated buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Mexico City, according to its website.

The developer did not immediately return a request for comment about its plans for All Saints Church, but Chisholm said the parish has been told the church may be converted into a school.

The proceeds of the sale will be used to pay off portions of the $13 million in debts that Parish of the All Saints had racked up over the years, including from maintaining the church building itself, Chisholm said.

Know someone who would like to get Harlem news in their inbox? Invite a friend to subscribe to emails from Harlem Patch.