Saturday, April 13, 2019

Little (Church) and Lott (House) #AtoZChallenge

Today, for "L" day in the #AtoZChallenge, I take you to a church in Manhattan and an 18th century farmhouse (yes, farmhouse) in Brooklyn.


The "Little Church Around the Corner" is an Episcopal Church (the formal name is the Church of the Transfiguration but that doesn't begin with "L" located on West 29th Street in Manhattan.

This picture really shows how "little" it is compared to its neighbors.

The congregation was founded in 1848 and the church building dates from 1850.  It was declared a national landmark in 1973.  It has a long and distinguished history, including being used as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and a shelter for African Americans during the terrible Draft Riots of 1863.  It has ties of many years with the New York City theatre community, dating from around 1870.

The Hendrick Lott house is one of the oldest houses in New York's borough of Brooklyn, dating from 1800, although it incorporates part of a structure dating from 1720.
I have family living in the neighborhood the Lott House is located in, and my son (who is now in his late 20's) has memories of walking to the house, then neglected and in disrepair, the property overgrown, with his cousin.  He was about five at the time. 

When we visited last year at Christmastime with my son, the house was one of the first things he wanted to see.

How happy he was to see that the house is being restored, although visitors are only permitted on special occasions.  I can't even imagine how valuable the land (the house sits on about 3/10 of an acre) it sits on is.  I think its survival was little short of amazing.

Luck?  Or something more?

6 comments:

  1. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Quite informative. Good to see another corner of the world through your words and pics.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The restoration of the house is well done; must be some heavy money behind the preservation. Love the picture of the little church also.

    http://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com/
    (AtoZ Theme: very short stories/various genres)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's so cool it's being restored. So many old buildings are just bulldozed and rebuilt as high rises without a thought to their heritage value or aesthetics.
    All the best for the rest of the challenge.

    https://nilabose.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. I knew about the church, but the site in Brooklyn...wow.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's amazing to see some of these old structures survive.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me, and I appreciate your comment and your visit. These comments are moderated, so they may not post for several hours. If you are spam, you will find your comments in my compost heap. I do not respond to comments similar to "nice blog! Please visit my blog" generally ignore these.