West Park and Landmarking: My testimony

 6/16

West Park Church

The issue of West Park Presbyterian Church, a church I led for 22 years.. and landmarking is once again before the city. It's been an ongoing twisting, turning struggle. And this time, like Yogi said, deja vu all over again. I find the acrimony and accusations pointless and unhelpful. Sooner or later we've got to find a way to work together. After holding back from public comment, I finally submitted a statement to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.  Here is that statement...

To the Landmarks Commission

I am writing to you as the former Pastor of West Park Presbyterian Church and the current Moderator of New York City Presbytery. I have not until this point spoken publicly about the hardship petition of West Park to remove the landmarks designation of its building because I have relationships with and profound respect for persons on both sides of this issue. This issue is not new. It has been going on for over 30 years. However, through the public hearings and other presentations  over the last several weeks the amount of misinformation has grown to the point where I must respond. The Commission needs to make its decision based on accurate information.

In our faith tradition, erecting a building is never an end to itself but a means to living out its mission. Throughout the life of a congregation, that must always be its purpose. When a government imposes a landmarks status on a building without also providing means of funding the maintenance of that building, it forces a congregation to devote its resources to the preservation of a building not its primary mission. This in essence  violates  the First Amendment  allowing the government to, in effect,  determine the mission of a church.  To state it most graphically, government does not have the right to require a church to give up its life to preserve a building. If a community has determined that a building is an essential part of its cultural heritage, that community has an ethical obligation to support that preservation.

These are the most egregious misunderstandings:

1. That West Park has done nothing to preserve the building.

      West Park returned to a badly damaged building due to a broken pipe water flow that had gone on for 8 days from the top floor down to the bottom.  The congregation bravely worshipped  in a building with no heat and no restrooms. West Park has spent over a half million dollars to maintain and restore the building.  This required selling of the Pastor’s home and ultimately, necessitating the retirement of the Pastor. The church has spent down to its last penny to preserve this building. 

2. Following landmarking and the promise of financial help from local politician and knowing that government could not fund churches, the church, with interested community members founded the Center as its own 501c3. It was to be not just an “arts center” but a community center dedicated to the transformation of the individual and society through arts and culture, intergenerational education, social action and spiritual exploration, in collaborative partnership with the church. The Center was an outreach creation of the Church.

3. The most well noted productions at West Park were church productions, not Center productions. 

4. Over the last ten years, the church has repeatedly sought to find a significant partner for the building. The church secured a real estate person expressly for that purpose. There were several potential partnerships reaching serious levels of negotiation and development. These included a synagogue, a  significant Muslim civic association, two major dance companies and a theater company. All backed out over the costs of renovation that would have been required. West Park never stopped seeking a partner. 

5.  Our time at St. Paul and St.Andrews was not because the building was no longer safe. We left on a Friday in May 2008 because a redevelopment project was set to begin the following Friday. Late in the day, a council member put in a stop work order. Even though we had the necessary paper work done in 48 hours, it took 18 months to clear DOB.  At that point, the landmarking  process had begun and the development partner abandoned the project.

6.  As to the diminuation of the congregation, on the one hand, it’s certainly part of national trends. On the other hand, this building issue has undeniably had a great impact. As it began, we were actually growing  dramatically  in membership. Seeking solutions led to internal struggles and over the years, the never ending dominance of building issues over everything else had a very negative effect on members. The struggle to keep the building going exhausted many people emotionally and spiritually.  People left.

Nevertheless, a determined dozen or so has continued in weekly worship, Bible Study and hosting a most popular weekly open mic at the Church.

7.  New York City Presbytery is not wealthy. It has had to drastically reduce its staff and office space. Its 88 churches have  12000 members in 88 churches, over half of whom belong to only 5 churches. Over 40, especially in black and  brown neighborhoods, cannot afford a pastor. The pandemic years have eliminated rental and offering income pushing many churches to the brink of extinction.  The vision is to give West Park an opportunity to be reborn and further to seed selfdevelpment projects  throughout the 5 boroughs as a true extension of the legacy of this congregation over the years.

In conclusion, it is your duty to determine if West Park has met the legal requirements for hardship relief. If you determine that it has, so be it. Then rule as such). But if not, you have the moral and ethical responsibility to do everything in your power to encourage and facilitate the necessary  collaboration for a realistic and sustainable solution.

The you for your consideration 

Sincerely

Rev. Dr. Robert Brashear

Moderator, New York City Presbytery

Pastor Emeritus West Park Presbyterian Church

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West Park and landmarking...

 NPR covers West Park....

https://www.wnyc.org/story/historic-upper-west-side-church-faces-demolition/

Ever since it was built in the late 19th century, West Park Presbyterian Church has been at the center of progressive and radical politics, including the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement and nuclear disarmament. It was here in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, that God's Love We Deliver was born.

The Upper West Side building was landmarked in 2010, but the red sandstone structure -- “one of the best examples of a Romanesque Revival style religious structure in New York City," according to preservationists -- is crumbling. Church officials say repairs would cost $50 million, which means it could be torn down to make way for a high-rise.

“Essentially what's happened is that the congregation of the West Park Presbyterian Church has in fact run out of money by attempting to keep up this landmark building,” said Roger Leaf, a trustee of the Presbytery of New York City, who serves as chair of the West Park Administrative Commission, the governing body of the church.

But elected officials, community residents and artists are vigorously pushing back, saying the church is too important to be demolished. 

Days 9 and 10 of Easter: Communists. Landmarking. Homeless.

4/28

A very quiet day. From the sanctuary, I hear Karen in deep concentration as she plays the piano, singing her own songs. She is not conscious of anything else, her voice rising, dancing with the notes flowing from her fingers.

On my way to midtown to experience Jane’s new venture, T.R.I.B.E.: Transformation, Realization, Inspiration, Belonging, Expression. (www.tribealive.com)

4/29

Haven’t seen Jamie in a long time. She’s in to see Danielle with another possibility. She doesn’t give up. Even when she feels like it’s long past enough. It’s been over a month. I don’t have much time. Conversation not easy.

The Revolutionary Communists have been all over the place all day. Planning, strategizing their upcoming event. Very particular, middle aged, fastidious women. Media people come later. They’re negotiating a deal with Marc. Their program will be where we are in the Revolution. They could be a subcommittee of the Landmarks activists or the Central Park  Conservancy though they sincerely believe themselves to be the vanguard of the coming Revolution.

Clergy friends gather to meet with city council member Helen Rosenthal and enter into a dialogue around landmarking. Something downtown has necessitated her having to cancel. Some of my colleagues have a cynical response to this news.

Even though he’s been here 5 years, Father Larry from Holy Name has not heard all the stories we have about landmarking. All I was told is that councilmember Brewer made promises and you got landmarked and the money never came, he says.

Long story short. I say. Then I  tell him the long one.  Pastor K from SPSA has his story to. His journey went all the way up to the Supreme Court who finally decided not to hear the case. Their vitality and presence is both a tribute to their creativity and passion and the presence of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in their building. And Pastor Alistair and Rev. Peggy now feel themselves in the crosshairs.

Our conversation soon turns to our relationships with the homeless people of our neighborhood. West End has no issue, they are surrounded by iron fence and gates.  Holy Name has recently closed their steps after a slashing incident. There has been increasing violence. But the chains across the steps bother him deeply. Pastor K closed his steps after someone tried to set fire to the church doors.(They've left their affidavit that allows the police to move people on lapse. Must be renewed with the attorney general every six months.)  Good to know I am not alone here. We all agree that in the late years of Bloomberg’s luxury city, things got rougher. More violent and intransigent. We all, however, are boundlessly thankful for the work of Goddard’s Project Outreach and their success in getting people housed.  We couldn’t do it without them.

On the other hand, I am comforted to know that Father Larry has had his own confrontations with the Midnight  Run folks who for all their good intentions  don’t realize that they often create scenes at the churches they visit that they leave for us to deal with. Father Larry has permanently banned them from Holy Name. If only they’d consult with us, have some  dialogue, work with us, not think they know it all because they deliver clothing  and sandwiches. They don’t live here. With the homeless. We do.

Liberal romanticization of homelessness does little to change anything for the individual homeless person/object of charity or our city in its failure to respond politically. Yes, they bring a sense of cheer, of caring, of compassion. But action without reflection is ultimately an exercise in self-gratification.  

Following Jesus

4/12

Haven’t  had to do anything like this for awhile.  There’s a fresh—and large---deposit of vomit right in the middle of the front steps. Unavoidable. Something must be done. So I get David S and he brings two large containers—plastic gas container sizes--- five gallons  apiece….a mop, a scraper, a bucket…and we get to work. The job is quickly done….and we agree….we’ve both seen worse.

Lynnea and her Frog & Peach Company are back again, this time rehearsing Shakespeare’s King John. She is  down with an arm load of swords. Those could come in handy.

Well, there was a flaw in the Noche floor. Wrong kind of glue. It leeched through and destroyed the underlying styrofoam. The hallway is filled with all the supplies to start a new new floor, and everything must be cleared out before Open Mic.

Martin is in with more questions as we come closer to figuring out what we’ll need to make this a longer relationship.

Danielle helps me figure out how to use my Zoom H2 recorder so I can try and capture tonight’s open mic on my own.

Late in the day off to talk with our new city council rep Helen. We have to get serious about the long unfulfilled promises to West-Park.  Which she in her campaign promised to address, including holding the community’s feet to the fire. And look for council led policy changes that could redress the financial burdens imposed on churches by the landmarking process. I actually suggest that she look at a proposal form one of the defeated candidates. And she agrees. One thing is clear, our former council member and new Manhattan Borough President has to be involved.

                                                                       * * * *

Another Open Mic finale
Pat O, RL, Nick Lantigua and Jesus on piano

As always, the Open Mic has its share of surprises. The first warm night has seemingly held down the crowd and we joke among ourselves that this Open Mic is open between 40 and 55' F.  Slowly but surely the players start to arrive.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my friend Jean. She has had some funding ideas for the Open Mic. The guys are anxious in their own way to talk to her about these ideas. And RL seems to have something in mind, or up his sleeve. Never easy to tell.

As it’s a slow night, RL starts us off unofficially with a set of Bob Dylan classics, ending with one of his favorites, the enigmatic All the  Tired Horses from the album that wonderfully annoyed and disturbed the critics, Self Portrait.

Happily Jean arrived in time for another Joel Gold flight of improv spoken word fancy, or  fantasy. Which always winds  up in reality at the end of the trip. She also caught Dion’s stand up (and testimony) and David S’ classic stylings. And RL got me on so that she could hear me before heading back to Jamaica for the next Hurricane Sandy rebuilding crew.

Alex plays and sings

A young woman. Alex, came  to the piano and surprised us with two Carol Kingesque originals and then a cover from the Broadway hit musical, Once.

Tonight’s surprise, a young  Italian in tight jeans, a light hoody and high heels who introduced himself

Jesus

as a pop/dance singer and songwriter. Goes by the name Jesus. Pat O had helped him not be anxious about his set with the  bawdy 17^th century Pirate song, Four Whores of Baltimore, rediscovered  by Gavin Friday. (who sang at Carnegie Hall with  Lady Gaga.) We have no idea what to expect from Jesus but he rocks through pop rock anthems of his own and finishes with a Lady Gaga cover.

Jesus again

Those who perform after joke about never thought I’d follow Jesus in a church…..and then David Lyons, who last week played in pubic for the first time, now sings in public for the first time.

David Lyons debuts his voice

And the inevitable Stay Awhile brings back Pat O and Nick the young banjo phenom and to our present surprise, Jesus rocking honkey tonk piano.

At this stage in his career, RL has now played with rappers and a pop/dancer guy in high heels. And the wonderful never know what to expect of our Friday night Rhythms, Repairs and Reconstruction keeps on making live music live.

Stay Awhile

What the Westside Spirit wrote about West-Park and landmarking...

The Congregation Versus the Community

WRITTEN BY MEGAN FINNEGAN BUNGEROTH ON OCTOBER 16, 2013. POSTED IN NEWS OUR TOWN, NEWS OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN, NEWS WEST SIDE SPIRIT.

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Churches and synagogues throughout Manhattan facing economic hardship may find their financial plans thwarted by preservation efforts

It’s hard to argue against preserving the city’s historic, soaring monuments to God. Churches and synagogues throughout Manhattan have been targeted by preservation enthusiasts since the city first created the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965. They have good reason: without landmark status protection, surely many of these places, which give religious congregations a home and neighborhoods an inimitable character and sense of history, would have been torn down long ago.

The side not often heard above the rallying cries of well-meaning preservationists, however, is that of the actual church or synagogue members. The landmark process, meant to protect and preserve historical assets that theoretically belong to everyone, can sometimes end up displacing the very people who hold the actual deeds to these properties and destroying the community that resides within the building in order to preserve its facade.

On the Upper East Side, this battle is playing out over Park Avenue Christian Church, a well-regarded local institution with a popular day school (which has also been the subject of some controversy after it was abruptly moved to the Upper West Side this fall) and a congregation of about 150 regular worshippers. The church recently presented plans to the community board, showing the result of a partnership with Extell Development Company to demolish part of the church’s property and build a condominium tower adjacent to it – one that cantilevered over the church’s spire and cast it into shadow. The community response was swift and harsh – they did not like it at all.

“We’re on the same street as the church, I’ve always known the church, I’m interested in architecture,” said neighbor Eron Roland in an interview. “Any tower that they would build would be enormously out of scale. It would block all the light that would go into the windows. [The parish house] is a crucial part of gothic architecture that goes into the church.”

At the meeting, other residents raised concerns about blocking light into the church and onto the street, about dwarfing the church with the oversized structure, and about preserving the historic architecture of the church.

Park Avenue Christian Church

In a letter he sent to be read at the meeting, Ralph Adams Cram, an architect from Cram Good Hue and Ferguson – a firm that worked on restoring the church previously – wrote of the church’s parish house: “This seemingly subordinate structure is not superficial. The 70 foot spire on top of the annex is a masterwork. If built up, the structural stability of the church itself will be undermined.”

Church representatives disagreed.

“The annex is not the same as the sanctuary,” said Richard Sturm, a member of the church’s board of elders. “If we save it, it will kill the church. If we develop it, the church will live.”

Senior Pastor Alvin Jackson (who declined to be interviewed for this story) reiterated at the meeting what he claims is the church’s dire circumstances, the reason they have turned to development as an option, even as he pleaded with the board to wait for a vote until he came back with an improved design.

“We are not a wealthy congregation but we are committed,” Jackson said. “It’s all about the survival of faith in this city.”

Spokesperson George Arzt said, in an email in response to a reporter’s questions, that the church has been considering “many different options to ensure [its] survival. In 2011, the Church made the decision to devote its energies and funds on mission and service to the community, but since they are a relatively small Church the fundraising capacity is limited. The proposed transaction with Extell allows them to keep the Sanctuary, preserve it, and keep it beautiful for future generations, while at the same time carry out their mission.”

Arzt said that the church would use the funds it would receive from a deal with Extell – in the multiple millions – for major repairs and its continued community service projects. He said that the church doesn’t object to the potential landmark designation of the sanctuary, just the annex that they intend to knock down.

Now Park Avenue Christian Church finds itself caught between trying to appease the community while staving off a landmarks hearing that could potentially halt any development plans in their tracks. The Landmarks Preservation Commission confirms that they have tabled the prospect of calendaring a hearing while they give the church a chance to respond to community feedback. But the force of Upper East Side preservation activists is not to be underestimated, and the church could very well find its entire structure protected – or impeded, depending on your point of view – by a stamp of historical relevance from the LPC. It’s happened before.

Reverend Bob Brashear, the pastor of West-Park Presbyterian Church on the corner West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, finds himself and his congregation on the other side of the landmarking battle, having lost the fight against designation in 2010. At the time, the church was facing over $10 million in repair costs, including the need for a new roof, major exterior repairs, a new furnace and a fix of a plumbing system that had burst, and had hoped to find a development partner to tear down the building behind their sanctuary and construct new residential housing that would bring in the revenue stream they needed. After local preservation groups, neighbors and elected officials put up a fight and brought the 19th century church before the LPC, the church became a landmark, despite Brashear’s continued and strident objections, warning that the church could become an empty shell of itself if the congregation could not afford to keep up a landmarked building.

Now, three years later, West-Park is inching forward. They have a new boiler thanks to donations and continue to make repairs and search for funding to secure their future.

“When structures and buildings have reached a certain quality of let’s say being part of the social cultural heritage of a particular neighborhood community, there is a responsibility to seek to preserve that,” Brashear said. “Along with that comes the responsibility and obligation to work with the congregation to make sure that the mission can be preserved as well as the structure. That so far has been a disappointment.”

Brashear said that he gives a lot of credit to the work of City Council Member Gale Brewer, who fought to landmark the church but has also continued to advocate for it, and to the Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program, which has also helped them to survive.

That program has distributed over $8 million in grants to more than 700 congregations in New York State.

“There’s a lot of hand-holding and technical help; we don’t just say ‘here’s the money, good luck,’” explained Peg Breen, president of the Conservancy. One of the reasons the program exists, she said, is that churches and houses of worship lack the resources to navigate the process of finding and securing grants and partners that can allow them to maintain their buildings and their programs.

The scarcity of prime real estate in Manhattan also makes these places particularly vulnerable. “A couple of years ago, there were developers on the Upper West Side just knocking on doors saying, can we buy your church?” she said.

“Churches can be somewhat soft targets for development because they’re volunteer organizations and they’re not always as sophisticated in knowing what their property is worth,” said Ann Friedman, director of the Sacred Sites program.

Sometimes religious institutions are aware of the value of their real estate, however, but still face opposition to selling or altering their facilities. The Town & Village Synagogue on East 14th Street has occupied a building for decades that has been technically calendared (meaning that a vote was already taken to schedule a hearing) by the LPC since 1966, though a hearing was never scheduled.

“Potential designation has arisen within the last two years,” said Cynthia Weber, a co-chairperson of the Town & Village Health Committee who is involved with the synagogue’s leadership. “We in that period have been undergoing some serious planning for the growth and future of our congregation and for the structure that we would need to contain our current programming and growth.”

That search lead to an exploratory listing with the real estate firm Massey Knakal, showing the building going for $13,950,000; that lead to coverage on the Lower East Side blog EV Grieve, which alerted the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), which alerted the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“The building has always been on our radar,” said Andrew Berman, president of the GVSHP. “We certainly had no idea that there was a possibility of plans to tear it down. As soon as we were aware, we brought it to the commission’s attention, because it’s technically been on their docket for almost 50 years now.”

But Weber stressed that the synagogue isn’t actually for sale; they are looking at all possibilities and are eager to find a way to accommodate their growing congregation. While a hearing has been scheduled for the end of October on the synagogue, they’re hoping that they can find an alternative plan that would maintain the historic elements without getting an official designation as a landmark.

“We’re trying to look in the broadest possible way at the options,” Weber said. “That is a spectrum that has to include potentially anything that ranges from selling the building to building up and out on site.”

She said that having conferred with other religious organizations that have received landmark status, the congregation hopes to avoid the additional paperwork, time and attention that working within landmark guidelines would bring.

“If this was a world with unlimited resources and we could carry out our mission and the LPC could carry out its mission, we’d all be happy,” said Weber. “We believe in the beauty and integrity and the upkeep of our building. But we have hard decisions to make.”

Berman said that he’s reached out to the synagogue to offer his organization’s assistance; the synagogue has agreed to meet in November, after the scheduled hearing date at the LPC.

Rev. Brashear at West-Park said that if he could go back, he would have included the community in the church’s plans – before the specter of landmarking ever came up.

His advice to other religious institutions facing a similar situation is to get a clear idea of the vision and mission and then go into the surrounding community and build relationships to help make that happen.

“For those who wish to see landmarking imposed, please understand that to begin the process comes with a moral obligation,” Brashear said. “From a very early point, some kind of really concentrated community partnership has to be put into play if we’re not just going to preserve empty buildings and watch them crumble.”

Additional reporting by Joanna Fantozzi

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