Upper West Side Board Rejects Plan To Demolish Landmark Church

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side's Community Board 7 voted this week 25-15 to reject an application to demolish the landmarked West Park Presbyterian Church on West 86th Street.

This rejection sides with preservation advocates, including the Center at West Park, a community arts center recently evicted from the church, who have fought to save the crumbling 19th-century building, which has spent the last 20 years covered in scaffolding.

The board’s decision marks the second time the community board has denied the Presbytery of New York City’s hardship claim that it can’t afford to maintain the 135-year-old Romanesque Revival church on West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

"Last night’s Community Board 7 vote affirms what thousands of New Yorkers have been saying: West Park Presbyterian Church must be preserved," Debby Hirshman, the executive director at the Center at West Park, said in a statement Thursday after the vote.

Over the past two and a half years, the Center at West Park has raised millions of dollars to support the center and create a fund to restore the building, galvanizing the support of big-name celebrities like Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Laurence Fishburne, Julianna Margulies and Fisher Stevens.

"The Center at West Park and our supporters will continue to demonstrate both our capacity and commitment to repairing and restoring the Church, so it can remain a beacon of sacred space, community, social responsibility, and culture on the Upper West Side, serving all five boroughs," Hirshman said.

"We have the funding, we have the plan, and we have overwhelming community support."

How it started

For the uninitiated, the 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 2022, the church signed a contract to sell the building to Alchemy Properties contingent on a demolition permit, which would displace the arts organization and knock the landmarked building down, according to amNewYork.

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.

The church issued a statement on its website saying that it had decided to sell the church due to economic hardship and the changing needs of its congregants.

"For decades, our church building has faced mounting repair costs, both inside and out. Today, a team of preservationists, structural engineers and construction experts estimates that it would cost nearly $50 million to repair and restore the building.

"After more than two decades of trying to keep up with repairs and waiting for unfulfilled promises of fundraising to come through, we are committed to exploring every option for our congregation’s future," the church owners wrote on their website.

In early July, the Center at West Park was evicted from its home in the church, a move that had to be completed in order for developers to file for demolition permission.

The arts center has been continuing many of its programs — including its performances, festivals and artist space subsidy program — just two blocks away at the Saint Paul and Saint Andrew United Methodist Church, thanks to a newly established partnership.

What’s next

Though the church is a landmarked building, it could still be demolished if the city's Landmarks Preservation Committee determines that demolition is the only option.

The final decision now rests with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is set to hold a public hearing about the hardship application on Dec. 9.

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

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