National Register of Historic Places Program
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.
Property Name | First Presbyterian Church of Newtown |
Reference Number | 13000696 |
State | New York |
County | Queens |
Town | Elmhurst |
Street Address | 54-05 Seabury Street |
Multiple Property Submission Name | N/A |
Status | Listed 9/9/2013 |
Areas of Significance | Architecture, Social History |
Link to full file | https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/13000696.pdf |
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The First Presbyterian Church of Newtown is significant under National Register criteria A and C in the areas of Architecture and Social History. Completed in 1895, the church sanctuary was designed by Queens architect Frank A. Collins to fulfill the wish of the buildings donor that it be modeled on an 1873 church in Cherry Valley, New York. The imposing edifice is significant as an example of high Victorian Gothic Revival style ecclesiastic architecture executed in granite and sandstone located in the Queens neighborhood of Elmhurst. The church houses windows by noted New York City stained-glass artists Sellers & Ashley, practitioners of the opalescent style popular in the late 19th century and associated with Tiffany Studios, for whom both Benjamin Sellers and William J. Ashley also worked. The building is a rare example of a church designed by Frank A. Collins, whose career as the New York City Department of Educations deputy superintendent of buildings for Queens is credited with overseeing the construction of some fifty school buildings in the borough, and it is also one of his largest private commissions. |
Properties are listed in the National Register of Historic Places under four criteria: A, B, C, and D. For information on what these criterion are and how they are applied, please see our Bulletin on How to Apply the National Register Criteria