St. Stephen’s Church (The Church of Our Lady of the Scapular and St. Stephen)

History and architecture

St. Stephen’s Church (The Church of Our Lady of the Scapular and St. Stephen) is a particularly early example of the Romanesque Revival style, located on East 28th Street near Murray Hill and Kips Bay in Manhattan.

Designed by prominent architect James Renwick, Jr. and constructed in 1853-54, during the 1860s this church was one of the largest and most influential Catholic congregations in New York. The Parish of St. Stephen’s was founded in 1848 and this was its second building. In the mid-nineteenth century this area was a fast-growing part of Manhattan, and the church’s popular pastor, Rev. Cummings, attracted many people to the services. The local population had grown so much that by 1865-6 St.

Stephen’s extended the church north through the block to 29th Street. The Romanesque Revival style, which Renwick had used on his Church of the Puritans on Union Square (1846-7, demolished) and the Smithsonian Institution (1846) was more commonly applied to Evangelical Protestant Churches at this time and is highly unusual for a mid- nineteenth century Catholic Church. Here Renwick created a lively façade with round-arched entrance and window openings, blind arcades and corbel tables capped by a large rounded pediment, all of which animate the streetscape in this densely developed part of Manhattan.

Its wider, 29th Street façade is equally interesting with a variety of gabled bays, niches, stained glass windows and a polygonal tower. The Church of St. Stephen joined with Our Lady of the Scapular in 1989 and continues to serve this vibrant community.