Church of St. Vincent Ferrer: “One of New York’s Greatest Architectural Adornments”

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While in New York City for Easter weekend, I made the most of the four full days in my hometown city by visiting the city’s largest cathedral, popping into Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street, walking the world’s most beautiful park, revisiting the Guggenheim Museum and catching a live performance in the aforementioned largest cathedral by none other than Robert Plant. Then there was one of the most pleasant surprises from my trip, discovering the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, a Catholic parish on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Church of St. Vincent Ferrer

After a walk in Central Park, I found myself craving a NYC slice of pizza. Google led me to a place called Pizza Napoli on on Lexington Ave. between East 65th and 66th streets. As I was walking there, I noticed a small but eye-catching cathedral right across the street. Now, in all my 33 years of living in New York, I had never entered a cathedral until I walked into the Cathedral of St. John the Divine a few days prior. So I figured I’d make it two cathedrals in one trip.

I wasn’t expecting it to be anything like the cavernous St. John the Divine, and I was right. It was actually better…

The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer was built in 1918 by the Dominicans (a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by the Castilian priest Dominic de Guzmán). The church is under the patronage of Saint Vincent Ferrer (who else?), a Dominican preacher from Valencia, Spain.

The church replaced an existing church that was completed in 1867. That church was demolished in 1914 to begin construction of a new one designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, an American architect celebrated for his work in Gothic Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival design. Goodhue considered St. Vincent Ferrer his best Gothic work; he designed the Gothic Revival church in the style of 14th-century French Gothic, with echoes of Romanesque.

Guastavino tile was used on the interior to provide for excellent acoustics. Goodhue had Charles Connick’s stained glass windows positioned so that the colors complemented each other. Connick (1875–1945) was a prominent American painter, muralist, and designer best known for his work in stained glass in the Gothic Revival style.

On October 22, 1916, the construction of the present incarnation of St. Vincent was completed, at a cost of $1.5 million ($44.4 million in contemporary dollars). It was dedicated on May 5, 1918, when over 50,000 people attended.

After the building was completed, a panel of architects charged with selecting the 50 most beautiful U.S. churches voted St. Vincent Ferrer the second most beautiful (the first-place winner, St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue, was also a creation of Mr. Goodhue).

During the late 1960s and 1970s Andy Warhol, a devout Byzantine Catholic who lived nearby, attended Mass regularly at St. Vincent Ferrer. St. Vincent Ferrer has an 86-rank pipe organ that was built in two phases by the Schantz Organ Company of Orrville, Ohio. The 18-rank chancel organ was installed in 1998 and contributions from American businessman William E. Simon and other donors allowed the church to purchase the the newer 68-rank gallery organ in 2002.

The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer was made a New York City designated landmark in 1967. Seventeen years later, in 1984, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s an absolutely beautiful church (and I’ve been to more than a few!) and was a very pleasant surprise in a city that I realized I needed to get to know a little better.

St. John the Divine is impressive in its sheer size – but I sometimes felt I was walking through a large museum. The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer felt more like the 600+ year old cathedrals you stumble upon in Europe. The kind where you just put down your camera, take a seat and just take it all in. And if you’re lucky, you just might hear the voice of God whisper in your ear. Enjoy the images…