New Building Occupied
Diocesan Press Service. March 11, 1963 [VIII-3]
NEW YORK -- The new 12-story Episcopal Church Center opened its doors Monday, Feb. 25 in one of the fastest-growing areas of New York City. The address will be 815 Second Avenue (Forty-third Street).
Modern in design, the $5,900,000 edifice will be in easy access to the United Nations, the Grand Central Station and the East Side Airlines Terminal.
Officers and staff of the National Council of the Episcopal Church bade farewell to the 70-year-old Church Missions House at 281 Park Avenue South Feb. 21.
The Park Avenue building, fondly remembered as "281", has long been inadequate to house the expanding work of the Church in this country and overseas. Home of the Church's administrative arm since 1894, it has been purchased by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies for $350,000.
Most of the Church's agencies - now spread over several cities - will eventually move to the new Church Center will be formally dedicated April 29.
The edifice contains approximately 100,000 square feet of floor space as against 30,000 in "281".
At street level a one-and-a-half story chapel is recessed behind an arcaded passage that runs the full length of the Second Avenue facade.
Adjacent to the chapel is the main entrance and lobby, a National Council information center and the Seabury Press Book Store. There are two sub-basements under the street level.
Exterior walls of the arcade are of granite and glass. Above them are nine floors containing offices, conference rooms, libraries, a lunch room and audio-visual facilities.
Atop the new building is a setback roof layout providing an apartment for the Church's Presiding Bishop.
The exterior of the entire edifice with its long column piers suggests the stone mullion of a great Gothic cathedral. Contemporary in design it retains a graceful medieval effect.
According to Fredrick J. Woodbridge of the architectural firm of Adams and Woodbridge, "the problem involved was to produce a dignified treatment, clearly suggesting institutional and ecclesiastical character, and at the same time to achieve the most effective fenestration for a modern office building."
The building's facade gives the impression of an enormous traceried window. It is the first edifice in Manhattan to be constructed with a framework of new, lighter-weight, higher strength steel. The George A. Fuller Company is general contractor.
Of the building's total cost all is in hand or pledged except for $1,000,000, according to Harry L. Dietz, assistant treasurer of the National Council's Department of Finance.
This means, he noted, that the parishes, dioceses and missionary districts, and individuals have amassed $3,000,000 of the $4,000,000 they originally pledged.
The cost of the land -- $1,050,000 -- came from reserve funds built up over the years. The proceeds from the sale of Church Missions House and Tucker House in Greenwich, Conn., headquarters of the Church's educational arm, went into the construction of the new building. The latter was sold to the Greenwich Savings and Loan Association for $250,000.
Contributions to the Episcopal Center have ranged from $16.88 and $2.70 -- given, respectively, by the Airak-en and Nansei-en Leper Colonies -- to $419,781.96. That sum, the largest single gift received, was contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Eli Lilly of Indianapolis.
The Council's Division of Research and Field Study, now in Evanston, Illinois, will move in June or July.
Other Church agencies that will gradually transfer their activities from other locations to the Episcopal Church Center are:
The Seabury Press, official publisher for the Episcopal Church
The Brotherhood of St. Andrew
The Order of the Daughters of the King
New York office of "The Episcopalian" magazine
The Church Army
The American Church Building Fund
The Church Periodical Club
The Girls' Friendly Society
The Foundation for Episcopal Colleges