St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

This Byzantine-style church incorporates a 1903 French Romanesque portal from its previous Madison Ave. location. Designed by Stanford White and funded as a memorial for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the portal features Renaissance-inspired sculpture and ornate brass doors. There are stained glass windows by Hildreth Meire and the city's largest pipe organ. The community house was constructed later by Goodhue's firm after he had died. It cost $5.4 million in 1930. Famous congregants included Lillian Gish and her mother. But by the 1980's many of the parishioners had moved away. The Church needed money and collaborated with a developer who was going to purchase the air rights and erect a tower over the Community House. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court.