Stripped to the studs: former church on 4th Street sees full gutting

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

The gutting of the former Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel at 256 E. Fourth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C appears complete.

We peeked at the interior the other day and didn't see much left. 

"It's all gone, all the windows, everything on the inside, it's completely empty," a worker on the scene said.

As we previously reported, the city has a partial demolition permit on file. A few parts of the existing building will remain in place, as the four-story structure will receive two additional floors to accommodate six condos. 

Project architect Stephen Conte told the Post in March that the original facade could not be saved, as decades of water damage rendered the already-thin front walls unsafe. Other elements of the previous houses of worship here were also deemed unsalvageable. 

The plywood rendering lists a spring 2026 completion date.

Village Preservation continues to call for expanded landmark protections in the East Village, including swaths of Avenue B and Avenue C (more info here). Despite similar designations in other neighborhoods, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission has ignored the proposal. 

Our post from Feb. 10 has more info on this building's history.

A few more details on the condo conversion of a former tenement synagogue on 4th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy

As we first reported on Feb. 10, workers are gutting the former Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel at 256 E. Fourth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

As of this past Thursday, a partial demolition permit has been filed with the city. Some parts of the existing building will remain in place as the four-story structure will receive two additional floors to accommodate six condos. 

Since our story broke, there has been concern over the loss of this one-time historic tenement synagogue. 

Project architect Stephen Conte told the Post on Friday that ...

 ... there was no way to save the original facade, as decades of water damage rendered the already-thin front walls unsafe.

"We're going to see if there are any interior design elements we can keep that don't have any toxic materials or mold," such as stained glass windows and wooden doors, Conte told The Post, adding that the red brick exterior was chosen to keep the building "contextual" within the block.

Village Preservation continues to call for expanded landmark protections in the East Village, including swaths of Avenue B and Avenue C (more info here). Despite similar designations in other neighborhoods, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission has ignored the proposal. 

Our previous post has more info on this building's history. 

Here's a New York Municipal Archive photo from the early 1940s, when this was the Lemberger Congregation Anshei Ashkenaz. The property, dating to 1859, was once part of Petrus Stuyvesant's estate.

Church to condo conversion underway on 4th Street

Photos by EVG reader Kait 

The gutting of the former Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel is underway at 256 E. Fourth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

Workers arrived last week for a church-to-condo conversion. According to DOB permits, the four-story structure will receive two additional floors to accommodate six residences, presumably condos, based on the square footage.

The plywood includes a rendering of the all-new residences ... StudioSC is listed as the architect of record.

The church had been on the market for several years and changed hands last fall for $2.95 million. 

The new owner is listed as an LLC, per public records. 

As for history, there's plenty of it here...

According to Daytonian in Manhattan, the property, dating to 1859, was once part of the estate of Petrus Stuyvesant. It later became known as the Lemberger Shul.

In 1925, the Lemberger Congregation purchased the buildings and hired architect James J. Millman to design a shul, or synagogue, on the site. The congregation took its name from its native city, Lemberg, at the time the center of the Lwów Voivodeship of Poland. The city is known today as Lviv, Ukraine. 

The new building was faced in red brick and trimmed in stone. Millman's understated design relied mostly on Gothic arches over the openings. Projecting brickwork between the second and third floors, and on either side of the central rondel above the entrance provided interest. There were two entrances, one above a short, centered stoop, and another to the right for the women worshipers. It is unclear whether the rondel was always bricked in, or if it originally contained a rose window. 

In either case, it almost certainly displayed a Magen David, or Star of David. Set within the parapet is a stone Decalogue, representing the tablets of Moses. 

In the early 1970s, the synagogue became home to the Spanish-language Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel. As Daytonian noted (and the post is definitely worth a read): 

Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel remains in the converted synagogue — the Christian cross in the rondel happily coexisting with the Jewish Decalogue above it.

Based on the rendering, neither of those elements will co-exist at the address any more.