{"nrhp_refnum":"80002680","name":"Church of the Holy Communion and Buildings","other_names":["Odyssey House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"656-662 6th Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.74109134500003,"lon":-73.99393194199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-04-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of four Gothic Revival brownstone buildings (church, sisters' house, parish house and rectory) at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and West 20th Street in Manhattan, built between 1844 and 1855 and designed by Richard Upjohn.","why_significant":"The church was the first irregularly massed, picturesque Gothic Revival church in the United States and the first American church to draw on English ecclesiological principles. The complex also matters in the history of the Episcopal church in New York: it was the first important free Episcopal church, organized what is thought to be the first boys' choir in America, and founded the first Episcopal Sisterhood in the country.","narrative":"Four brownstone buildings at Sixth Avenue and West 20th Street in Manhattan form an Episcopal church complex designed by Richard Upjohn and built between 1844 and 1855: the church, sisters' house, parish house and rectory. Mary A.C. Rogers financed the church to fulfill her late husband's wish for a free Episcopal church, and her brother, the Reverend William Augustus Muhlenberg, guided the project after contact with English ecclesiological ideas. Upjohn's asymmetrical plan, with clearly marked nave, transepts and chancel, a high-pitched roof and a timber roof frame, drew on English medieval parish churches and is described as the first irregularly massed picturesque church in the country. The congregation also started an early boys' choir and the first Episcopal Sisterhood, and helped found St. Luke's Hospital. Surrounded by commercial loft buildings, the complex remained a small-scale oasis. The congregation merged with others in 1975, and a drug rehabilitation center now uses the buildings for offices and residences.","period_of_significance":"1844-1855","architect_builder":"Richard Upjohn","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; used for offices and residences by a drug rehabilitation center, which has undertaken preservation. Buildings described as in extremely fine condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.586391-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002680.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002680/ce27905851-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002680/ce27905851-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Limelight.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Limelight.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319395","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Communion_and_Buildings","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1105759"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/church-of-the-holy-communion-and-buildings-80002680/"}