Look to your right to see the striking new Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a glowing, rounded structure made of thin white marble slabs, crowned with a ribbed dome and a golden cross.
Back in 1919, five Greek immigrant families pooled together twenty five thousand dollars, which is about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars today, to buy an old tavern on Cedar Street. They added a fourth story and turned it into a tiny sanctuary. It was incredibly small, just twenty two feet wide, but fierce. When developers later waved fifteen million dollars at the church president to tear it down for skyscrapers, he refused instantly. This humble parish sat directly across from the massive World Trade Center site, serving as an unlikely spiritual anchor amidst the giants of global finance.
That close proximity meant that during the September 11 attacks, the original church was completely destroyed when the South Tower collapsed onto it. Just moments before the crushing blow, the landing gear of United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the church's parking lot. The caretaker fled for his life just minutes before the building was pulverized, leaving nothing but dust and tragic remnants behind.
Later, Father John Romas sifted through the horrific debris, weeping as he salvaged a twisted metal cross and a damaged piece of the wooden kouvouklion, which is the traditional funeral bier used during Good Friday services to represent the tomb of Christ. The church's most sacred relics, actual bone fragments of saints given by the last Tsar of Russia, were permanently intermingled with the remains of the victims. Church leaders reflected that this heartbreaking reality only further sanctified this hallowed ground.
Rebuilding took over twenty years and faced incredible hurdles. There were massive cost overruns and even a financial scandal where a former director was indicted for wire fraud and embezzlement, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This caused construction to freeze completely in 2017. But the community refused to give up. Check out the before and after image in the app to witness the remarkable transformation of Saint Nicholas from a frozen concrete construction site in 2018 to a completed glowing marble sanctuary today.
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the new church finally opened on December 6, 2022, the Feast of Saint Nicholas. It acts as a national shrine and a beautiful testament to a neighborhood that always finds a way to reinvent itself and rise from the ashes. The church is open daily from morning until late afternoon if you want to experience its peaceful interior.
Now, look just past the church to the towering, intricate skyscraper right behind it, a building that also survived the unthinkable, as we head three minutes away to our next stop, 90 West Street.
