Landmark Preservation Committee Schedules Vote for Cathedral of St. John the Divine

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is one of the largest and most recognizable religious buildings in New York City. But the Morningside Heights institution is not an official landmark.

That may change later this year.

The Landmark Preservation Committee agreed Tuesday to schedule a vote on making the cathedral and it's surrounding grounds — an 11.3-acre complex — an official landmark, Curbed reported. The cathedral grounds are located close to Columbia University and are situated near the Morningside Heights borders of the Upper West Side and Harlem.

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The committee had attempted to designate the cathedral a landmark in 2002, but the City voted not to make the cathedral a landmark, Curbed reported. That vote made the site vulnerable to private development, which eventually happened when two 15-story apartment complexes were built just next to the cathedral, according to Curbed.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the mother church of the New York Episcopal Diocese, according to its website. More than 30 services are held each week at the cathedral and its soup kitchen feeds about 25,000 people every year.

The cathedral was first proposed in 1828, and was granted charter in 1873. The cornerstone was laid in 1892 by Bishop Horatio Potter. Many parts of the cathedral's complex are still under construction.

>>> Read the full Curbed report here.

[Photo: Franco Folini via Flickr]