Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, the parish was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation's fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914. The church reported 2,753 members in 2015 and 2,875 members in 2023; no membership statistics were reported in 2024 parochial reports. Plate and pledge income reported for the congregation in 2024 was $2,435,735 with average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 478 persons.
In 2020, following a gift from the family trust of the late John and Mary Alyce Merrow, a camera system with a dozen 360-degree-rotating cameras was installed. Online attendance has remained significant; during Advent and Christmas, 2022, on-line participation was 38,000 with an average attendance of 25 minutes.Report of the Communications Department to the Vestry, January 25, 2023
The church is home to the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, a choral ensemble comprising men and boys which performs music of the Anglican tradition at worship services and offers a full concert series during the course of the year. The men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers and the boys are students enrolled at the Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church-affiliated residential choir school in the United States, where the choristers make up the whole student body. Only three such schools remain in the world currently; the two Anglican Choir Schools are Saint Thomas Choir School and Westminster Abbey Choir School in the United Kingdom.
History Broadway and Houston Street On October 12, 1823, members of three Episcopal parishes in Lower Manhattan collaborated to organize a new episcopal church in New York. These included William Backhouse Astor, a wealthy Manhattan landowner; Charles King, later president of Columbia University; and jurist William Beach Lawrence. The congregation came from Grace Church, Trinity Church, and St. George's Church.
Saint Thomas Church was incorporated on January 9, 1824,About the Church at the Saint Thomas Church website, (no further authorship information available). Retrieved November 8, 2006. and the cornerstone of the new church building laid in July 1824 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Houston Street. The first church edifice opened in 1826 and was described as "the best specimen of Gothic in the city."Perris, William. Plate 57, Maps of the City of New York, Vol. 5 (New York: Perris & Browne, 1854) The location was the northern extent of developed settlement in Manhattan during the early 19th century. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style by architect Joseph R. Brady and John McVickar, professor of moral philosophy at Columbia College (now Columbia University). The church was enlarged and remodeled in 1844 to accommodate a growing congregation.
The first Saint Thomas's Church was destroyed by fire on March 2, 1851. The congregation built a new church at the same location, completed in 1852. The character of the neighborhood at the corner of Broadway and Houston, the southeastern corner of Greenwich Village, broadly speaking, had "degenerated into anchorage for cheap dance halls and 'concert saloons'" by the 1860s. This led to the congregation seeking to relocate.
Move to midtown A third church was built from 1865 to 1870 at the corner of 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue based upon a design by Richard Upjohn and his son Richard Michell Upjohn. The cornerstone for the new church was laid on October 14, 1868. Two years later, on October 6, 1870, the congregation moved into its new home. This structure, in a neighborhood at the time dominated by the mansions of Manhattan's upper class, featured a prominent high tower and a bas-relief reredos by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and murals by John LaFarge. Though the new Saint Thomas's was a parish church, its location and design evoked that of a cathedral.
The third building was also the site of many high society weddings and funerals, including that of Consuelo Vanderbilt to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, the first cousin of Winston Churchill."'Consuelo and Alva': An Early Story of Celebrity" at Fully Authorized by Karen Grigsby Bates, at National Public Radio's website. Retrieved November 8, 2006. This structure was destroyed by fire on August 8, 1905. Only the tower remained from the third church. The congregation built a 1,200-seat chapel on the rest of the site.
Current church The fourth and current church, designed in 1906, was built from 1911 to 1913, on the same site as the third church. It was built to a design by Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue of the architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. The cornerstone was laid on November 21, 1911, and the new building opened to congregants on October 4, 1913. It was consecrated on April 25, 1916. The design by Cram and Goodhue won an architectural competition to build the new Saint Thomas Church, winning over entries by George Browne Post and Robert W. Gibson.The Midtown Book: Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue at The City Review Published by Carter B. Horsley, no further authorship information available. Retrieved November 8, 2006.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake had so shocked the church's rector, the Rev. Ernest M. Stires, that he rushed the accumulated balance in his parish's building fund to aid the stricken city. The public responded in kind to his generosity with unsolicited gifts that more than replenished the fund.
Cram and Goodhue are also noted for having designed Saint Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and East 50th Street, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and West 110th Street, the chapel and a large portion of the campus at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, the Princeton University Chapel at Princeton University and the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.
21st century In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Saint Thomas Church reached out to the British expatriate community in recognition of its Anglican heritage. This culminated in an interfaith service held at the church on September 20, 2001. The service was addressed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and broadcast live in its entirety throughout the United Kingdom. On October 28, 2002, the rector of Saint Thomas Church, Andrew C. Mead, was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. The honor was conferred at a ceremony at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C."Four Americans receive Honorary British awards" (Press Release October 28, 2002)--Google Cache of British Embassy website—accessed November 8, 2006.
In October 2023 Saint Thomas Church commemorated the bicentennial of its founding in 1823, with an exhibition, lectures and special services.Saint Thomas Church bicentennial events. Retrieved May 23, 2024. The Assistant Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool, and the Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal, Paul Wright, preached in celebration of the anniversary.The Living Church, "Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue Celebrates 200 Years", October 13, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2024. The following year, in May 2024, the 100th anniversary of the twinning of the cities of New York City and York in England was marked with special services attended by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, the Lord Mayor of York, Chris Cullwick, the Dean of York, the Very Rev. Dominic Barrington, and the British Consul General in New York, Hannah Young.Episcopal News Service, "New York's St. Thomas Church hosts 'Twinning of York' centennial festivities, presiding bishop to preach", May 8, 2024. Retrieved May 23, 2024.York Minster, "The cities of York and New York Celebrate a Century of Transatlantic Friendship:"100 Years of Twinning", May 2, 2024. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
In 2025, the development firm Extell Development Company agreed to pay the congregation $36 million for of the site's unused development rights.
Rectors Rector Years as Rector 1. Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie 1824–1827 2. George Upfold 1827–1831 3. Francis Lister Hawks 1831–1843 4. Henry John Whitehouse 1844–1851 5. Edmund Neville 1852–1856 6. William Ferdinand Morgan 1857–1888 7. John Wesley Brown 1888–1900 8. Ernest Milmore Stires 1901–1925 9. Roelif Hasbrouck Brooks 1926–1954 10. Frederick Myers Morris 1954–1972 11. John Gerald Barton Andrew 1972–1996 12. Andrew Craig Mead 1996–2014 13. Carl Francis Turner 2014–present
Architecture
The present church, a New York City designated landmark, was designed by a partnership of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Lee Lawrie designed the sculptures and decorations. It measures long and wide. The church building rises .
Facade Saint Thomas Church has plain ashlar limestone exterior surfaces in the French High Gothic style. The church's asymmetrical main elevation on Fifth Avenue is divided into three sections, reflecting the interior divisions. The nave is slightly off-center, with a wide chantry to the south and a narrow aisle to the north.
Main entrance The main entrance, which leads to the nave, is flanked by large buttresses. The entrance portal contains niches with sculptures. The center of the portal is divided vertically by a trumeau with a sculpture depicting Thomas the Apostle. There are three sculptures on each side, depicting six of the apostles. These sculptures, part of the original plan, were not installed until 1963. There are gilded low relief panels above the main doors, which depict the congregation's four buildings.
Above the portal are more sculptures, interspersed with small windows. These depict the six remaining apostles as well as Mary Magdalene and Martha. Decorative archivolts above these niches and windows contain depictions of Thomas the Apostle's life, the sacraments, and the gifts of the holy spirit. These in turn are topped by more figures of saints. The entrance is topped by a large rose window with a tetramorph in low relief.
Other sections To the left (south) of the main entrance, there is a square tower at the southeast corner of the church, facing Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street. The tower has a simpler design than the main entrance, with band courses and other horizontal design features that relate to the main entrance's design. At the top is a bell tower, which was cited in 1940 as having 25 chimes.
To the right (north) of the main entrance is a narrow section of wall, leading to the north aisle. The northern entrance contains a depiction of Ernest M. Stires holding a model of the current church. Stires was the rector when the church was completed.
The southern elevation contains five bays, which are separated by buttresses. Next to the square tower, in the easternmost bay, is an entrance to the chantry. Above the entrance there are motifs relating to the sanctity of marriage. The other bays contain stained glass windows in the chantry. To the west is the gallery, which contains five bays of tripartite windows made of stained glass. The three center bays of the gallery contain an arcade of three arched doorways. The buttresses contain sculptures of ancient leaders and philosophers. Above the four windows in the chantry and the five windows in the south gallery are nine recessed clerestory windows, illuminating the top of the nave.