West-Park Presbyterian Church, 165 West 86th Street

To:  NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Though the Landmarks Preservation Commission declared West-Park Presbyterian Church a “superb” building in 1977 and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation certified that the building is “associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history,” this important church, located at 165 West 86th Street, has yet to be landmarked.






As Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University art history professor Barry Bergdoll has stated, West-Park is “one of the architecturally most distinguished and historically most important of Manhattan’s surviving Nineteenth century churches.” In the words of Andrew Dolkart, architectural historian, writer and James Marston Fitch Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University, West-Park is “unquestionably one of the most beautiful religious structures on the Upper West Side” (to read letters of support and view images, go to: www.landmarkwest.org/westpark).






We, the undersigned, call upon the Landmarks Preservation Commission to rectify the neglect of one of Manhattan’s most historically and architecturally distinguished buildings and schedule a public hearing to consider landmark designation. High-rise development is not the only alternative for this site. West-Park Presbyterian deserves to be included among New York City’s Landmarks, both on the grounds of its architectural merit and for its importance in the social and cultural history of the city.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The West-Park Presbyterian Church, 165 West 86th Street Petition to NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission was created by and written by Hunter Armstrong (hfa99@hotmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at http://www.petitiononline.com/petition.html as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.