Fort Washington Presbyterian Church

History and architecture

Fort Washington Presbyterian Church, built 1913-14 to the designs of Thomas Hastings of the firm of Carrère & Hastings as a daughter church to West Park Presbyterian Church, is an imposing neo-Georgian building, notable for its broad simple massing and carefully-modulated refined detailing. Thomas Hastings was the surviving partner in one of the leading architectural firms in the United States, which had a nationally important reputation for its church designs. Hastings had a personal affiliation with project, since he was the son of the distinguished clergyman, the Rev. Doctor Thomas S. Hastings, who had been pastor of West Presbyterian Church, one of the two churches that merged in 1911 to create West Park Presbyterian. Mindful of the colonial and Revolutionary history of the Fort Washington neighborhood,

Hastings drew on eighteenth century models, particularly the churches of the English architect James Gibbs, to produce a richly embellished design that was uniquely his own. Basilican in plan, the church features a temple-fronted Doric entrance portico with four monumental stone columns and an unusually lofty, beautifully sculpted tower embellished with classical motifs. The building is clad with buff-colored brick laid in Flemish bond and trimmed with Indiana limestone given a “rubbed finish” to enhance the Georgian character of the design.

The church’s Georgian-inspired decoration includes keyed enframements for the three main entrances on Wadsworth Avenue, molded and bracketed window surrounds, pilasters which articulate the principle façade and sidewalls, stone balustrades, and multi-light windows. The tower’s height, together with the church’s siting near the crest of a hill, on a view corridor from Broadway, gives the tower a dominating presence on the skyline of Washington Heights while the church’s monumental facades contribute greatly to the architectural character of the neighborhood.

 Fort Washington Presbyterian remained affiliated with West Park Presbyterian until 1923. Fort Washington Presbyterian in turn was the mother church for Fort George Presbyterian on St. Nicholas Avenue at 186th Street, established in 1916. Fort Washington Presbyterian was served by a number of well-respected clergymen and prided itself on its “cosmopolitan membership drawn from every corner of the globe” and a notable history of community service.

In 1982 Fort Washington Presbyterian’s congregation ceded its church to the Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Washington Heights, a Hispanic congregation established in Washington Heights in 1948, which had been a voice for the Puerto Rican community in New York and had been led by such distinguished pastors as Rev. Guillermo Cotto-Thorner and Rev. Idalisa Fernández. Following the Hispanic congregation’s acquisition of the building its name was changed to Iglesia Presbitereriana Fort Washington Heights (Fort Washington Heights Presbyterian Church) to acknowledge the dual histories of its congregations.

It continues to function both as a church and a vital part of its community.