{"nrhp_refnum":"83001701","name":"St. Mary's Episcopal Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"230 Classon Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Brooklyn","state":"NY","lat":40.69278739900005,"lon":-73.96128295199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-07-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Gothic Revival Episcopal church at 230 Classon Avenue in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, designed in 1858 by Richard T. Auchmuty and opened for services in June 1859. The complex includes an attached 1892 parish house and an adjacent rectory.","why_significant":"The church is described as one of the most intact surviving mid-nineteenth-century Gothic Revival churches in Brooklyn. Auchmuty based the design loosely on an Early English rural parish church, following ecclesiological principles while adapting it to an urban site. A contemporary periodical called it the most beautiful church in Brooklyn.","narrative":"St. Mary's Episcopal Church, at Classon and Willoughby Avenues in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill, is a brownstone Gothic Revival church designed in 1858 by Richard T. Auchmuty, then junior partner to James Renwick. It opened for services in June 1859. The design draws loosely on an Early English rural parish church, with a deep chancel, a steep nave roof, a square tower with a broached spire, and a pointed-arch gateway shaped like a stepped flying buttress that guides visitors to the corner entrance porch. The nave is built of Belleville brownstone and lit by paired lancet windows. The parish began in 1835 among Navy Yard workers and was among the first to offer free pews. The site also holds the 1892 Johnson Memorial Parish House, a brick rectory with a mansard roof, and the original cast-iron fence. The church is valued as one of the best-preserved mid-nineteenth-century Gothic Revival churches in Brooklyn.","period_of_significance":"1858-1859","architect_builder":"Richard T. Auchmuty","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use; condition listed as good and altered, on its original site. The congregation is described as fairly small.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.966363-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/83001701.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001701/2f257807f3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001701/2f257807f3-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Jim.henderson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_CoE_Classon_Av_fr_Willoughby_Noon_jeh.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim.henderson</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_CoE_Classon_Av_fr_Willoughby_Noon_jeh.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318527","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Episcopal_Church_(Brooklyn)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7590278"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/brooklyn/st-marys-episcopal-church-83001701/"}