History and architecture
The Friends Meeting House is a two-story building with basement. It is a restrained and successful example of Anglo-Italianate architecture. Its calculated restraint and understatement reflect the English component in its design. The building has a handsome facade with a classic pediment as its dominant feature. The design of all of the individual elements of the structure reflect the work of an architect of special competence. Compared with typical examples of Anglo-Italianate architecture, this building makes an unusually effective architectural statement of outstanding merit.
At the public hearing, the chairman of the trustees of Gramercy Park testified, "This appealing old building, in its very simplicity, its serenity, reflects an outlook, a spiritual attitude which needs to be remembered today ... windows symbolical in a way of the beliefs and attitudes within, it gives an irreplaceable distinction to the southeastern corner of Gramercy Park." The retired editor of Architectural Forum Magazine said, "In his modest building, architect John Kellum in 1859 achieved an aesthetic rarity for New York or any other city: not pretentious but direct, reticent, of good proportions and superior in many a more ambitious effort then or now."
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.