PRESERVATION ISSUES ST. GEORGE'S PARSONAGE TO BE DEMOLISHED
Copyright New York Times December 19, 2004
In the mid-19th century, the citizens of a tiny pre-Queens hamlet called Hallett's Cove enrolled their daughters at the Astoria Institute for the Education of Young Ladies, a finishing school of sorts. The Institute, now a graying clapboard affair with a white-columned porch dating to 1828, once lorded over a neighborhood of grand houses built before the Civil War.
Some of those houses, located just off the East River near 27th Avenue, remain standing, but many have been replaced by apartment buildings and other modern structures. One three-story manse at 12th Street has a large sign declaring, "Coming Soon: 9 3-Family Homes." And now the Astoria Institute, which has found new life as the parsonage for St. George's Episcopal Church next door, will go as well; housing for the elderly is to take its place.
Construction begins next spring, and residents of Hallett's Cove, some of whom have deep roots in the area, are dismayed.
"The parish house holds a lot of memories for me," said Susan Coren, 63, who has lived around the corner on 12th Street since 1944 and was baptized and married at St. George's. In Ms. Coren's neighborhood, observers say, the Italianate and Greek Revival mansions of centuries past are quickly making way for brick boxes.
"It's almost been like dominoes," said Jeffrey Kroessler, founder of the Queensborough Preservation League. "Once one of the old homes goes, these junk houses go up in between."
Yet the impending demise of St. George's parsonage is a story not of opportunistic developers but of financial necessity, according to church officials. The Rev. Juan Quevedo-Bosch, the priest in charge of both St. George's and the nearby Church of the Redeemer, said St. George's is so short of money, it is open only on Sunday mornings and cannot offer such services as youth development and space for meetings.
And, Father Quevedo-Bosch said, things could be worse.
"If this land got in the hands of a developer," he said, "you don't know what could come out of that. We are being very insistent with the construction company that they have to be mindful of the historical beauty of the area. They're not going to put a blob in the middle of that space."
Also, he said, the parsonage's marble fireplaces and other historical details will be removed and preserved. With new income from the housing for the elderly, he said, the church will be able to renew its commitment to the community, which has a large amount of lower-income housing. "Eventually we are going to get there, and it's going to take time," he said. "I want to get us out of surviving and into serving."
