Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: St. Ann’s Church
Address: 131 Clinton Street
Cross Streets: Corner of Livingston Street
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1867-69
Architectural Style: Ruskinian Gothic
Architect: Renwick & Sands
Other works by architect: Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Heights HD (1966)

The story: This is one of the great churches of Brooklyn. Some call St. Ann’s the “Mother of Brooklyn Churches”, as it is Brooklyn’s oldest Episcopal congregation, and from the spreading out of its parishioners throughout Brooklyn, came St. Luke’s, St. Mary’s, two St. Paul’s, St. John’s and Christ Church. It was founded in the 1780’s, and its first home was at Fulton and Middagh Streets. This building is its third home. The church is named in honor of Ann Sands, a prominent parishioner, whose family was the “Sands”, after whom Sands Street is named. In fact, the second home of this parish was on Sands Street, and they moved because the church was in the way of the Brooklyn Bridge.

James Renwick Jr, the main architect of St. Ann’s, was one of the finest ecclesiastical architects of his, or any other day. He was from Manhattan, the son of James Renwick, Sr., a renowned professor of philosophy at Columbia College, whose deep interest in Gothic architecture was passed on to his son. Renwick was also a Brevoort on his mother’s side, and was thus well connected to the old New York families of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. This didn’t hurt him in getting the commission for Grace Church on 10th and Broadway, in Manhattan, one of that borough’s most beautiful Gothic churches.
Renwick’s rise was not because of connections, however. He was a truly gifted architect who understood Gothic architecture inside and out. With his contemporaries, Richard Upjohn and Minard Lafever, he created some of Brooklyn’s (and Manhattan’s) most beautiful churches. St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan is his design, conceived ten years before it was actually built, before he designed St. Ann’s.

So what do we have here? A magnificent polychrome stone and brick Gothic church. The “Ruskinian” label comes from the writings of the great British art critic and writer John Ruskin, who championed the use of natural stone in different patterns and colors. He would have loved this building with its alternating bands of brownstone and sandstone. The church is a Gothic paradise, with spires, buttresses, finials, lancets, gables, crockets and lots of stained glass in Gothic pointed windows. All of this leads the eye upward, perhaps even up to the heavens.

In 1969, St. Ann’s merged with nearby Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Montague, and sold this building to Packer Collegiate, right next door. The building was landmarked, so it couldn’t be torn down, and fortunately, Packer had the imagination and wherewithal to use the building well, as an auditorium. They kept the magnificent stained glass, as well as all of the exterior detail, and this remains one of the most beautiful and pleasant parts of a journey down Clinton Street. GMAP

Photo: lumierefl on Flickr.


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