Eviction Looms For Upper West Side Arts Center In 135-Year-Old Landmarked Church

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Center at West Park, a beloved community arts institution inside a landmarked Upper West Side church, was served eviction papers this Monday and has until next Monday to vacate the premises, its director, Debby Hirshman, told Patch.

The eviction comes after a May 22 court ruling that confirmed the arts center no longer has an active lease at the church, first reported by West Side Rag.

However, when Patch asked if the Center at West Park was planning on vacating by Monday, Debby Hirshman, the center's director, said the answer is still up in the air.

"There are many things underway. Stay tuned for the next episode. Not because I'm hiding anything, but because there are too many unknowns at the moment," the director said.

Regardless of where the Center is located after June 16, Hirshman told Patch the organization's robust programming will continue, as well as its advocacy to save the building from demolition.

"The Center at West Park is planning to continue to do the work that we have planned to do, be it on-site or off-site," Hirshman told Patch, adding that while much of its programming would be able to continue elsewhere, the church building would be a major loss to the organization.

"We will also continue to raise the funds to purchase the building while not interfering with an already existing contract between the developer and the church."

For the uninitiated, West-Park Presbyterian Church — an official city landmark — has been around for 135 years, the most recent 20 of them covered in scaffolding near 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The red-stone church building is the home of The Center at West Park, a nonprofit arts and culture hub that has turned the church into an affordable space for cultural programming.

However, in the past two years, the building's owners have been in talks to sell the building to developers, who could potentially displace the thriving arts community and knock the building down, according to the nonprofit's "Love Our Landmarks" campaign.

In 2023, there was a series of hearings with the city, where developers requested permits to demolish the building, which were denied for the time being in early 2024, according to several reports.

"I think people have gotten so caught up in the real estate story — which it is, of course — but the people who are going to be most hurt by it isn't some organization called the Center at West Park, it's all the people that the Center at West Park serves. It's all those lost opportunities that this eviction might be causing. That's the painful part."

West-Park Presbyterian Church is located at 165 West 86th St. on the Upper West Side.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.

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Mark Ruffalo, Laurence Fishburne Rally To Save NYC Landmark

Arts Center Secures $3.5M In Effort To Stop Demolition Of UWS Church