Look to your left and you will spot Saint Thomas Church, an asymmetrical limestone structure featuring a tall, square tower on its southern corner and a grand arched entrance beneath a massive circular rose window. Take a glance at your screen to see a close-up of that magnificent rose window with its intricate stone carvings. This is actually the fourth church the congregation has built on this site. A massive fire consumed the third building in August nineteen zero five. The rectory housekeeper, Mrs. Sandsbach, discovered the blaze at six in the morning and ran screaming into Fifth Avenue. The heat grew so intense that the heavy stone walls shattered. Stones as big as paving blocks rained down on the surrounding mansions. A caretaker next door, Kate Scully, panicked and ran into the street, absolutely convinced someone had bombed the building.
The congregation refused to move to another neighborhood. Instead, they hired architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue to design the current French High Gothic Revival structure, which they completed in nineteen fourteen. These two architects shared brilliant minds and a deeply eccentric, bohemian lifestyle. They belonged to secret societies devoted to mystical rituals and long dinners. Their business partner actually wrote them a letter in eighteen ninety-five begging them to abandon their bizarre habits, warning them that their reputations were at risk following the infamous Oscar Wilde trial. The architects also shared a bitter jealousy. They dissolved their firm entirely right before they finished this project because Cram accepted a cathedral commission that Goodhue desperately wanted. Check your app for a great view of the full exterior they managed to complete before parting ways. Over the years, the church hosted some of high society's most dramatic moments. The sculptor who worked on the southern entrance, known as the Bride's Door, cheekily chiseled a subtle dollar sign right next to a true lover knot. He wanted to mock the fabulously wealthy, and sometimes cynical, marriages that took place inside. For instance, in eighteen ninety-five, Alva Vanderbilt forced her daughter Consuelo into a loveless marriage with the Duke of Marlborough just to secure a royal title. The bride wept openly behind her veil as she stood at the altar.
Decades later, the drama shifted from the pews to the pulpit. In two thousand and six, eleven parishioners filed a formal complaint against the rector, Andrew Mead. They accused him of entirely bizarre behavior, including flying first class to Paris solely to fire a staff member on vacation, and using parish funds to buy massive quantities of cat litter for his personal pets.
If you want to look for that hidden dollar sign or admire the interior acoustics, you can visit the church during its operating hours, which run from eight thirty A-M to six P-M Monday through Friday, opening at ten A-M on Saturdays and eight A-M on Sundays.
The outrageous scandals and the striking architecture both leave quite a lasting impression on this corner of the city. Whenever you feel ready to move on, casually make your way toward our next destination.
