LPC OKs church-to-residential conversion on 7th Street

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved plans to convert and enlarge the historic church building at 121 E. Seventh St., between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

As previously reported here, the proposal called for converting the existing structure into a mixed-use building with eight residential units (presumably condos), along with a two-story vertical enlargement above the current roofline and nearly 2,400 square feet of community facility space.

According to New York YIMBY, who first reported on the LPC decision, the redesign includes modifications to the entrance and windows, stepped gables along the roofline, and restoration work on the masonry façade, including the bell tower. 

The property is within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District and requires LPC approval. 

The building has a long history, per Daytonian in Manhattan. No. 121 began as a house in 1843. In 1902, the Hungarian Reformed Church purchased the property and hired architect Frederick Ebeling to convert it into a church, adding a central bell tower characteristic of a Hungarian country church. The building was consecrated in 1903. 

In 1961, when St. Mary's American Orthodox Greek Catholic Church purchased the property, the congregation modernized the structure by encasing the original stone façade in "Naturestone," an artificial material — a change that preservationists have long lamented.

Here's what it looked like in 1910, nine years after people first declared the neighborhood "dead."

The church was most recently used by CityLight Church. 

The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese sold the building for $2.8 million last June to an LLC, per city records.