US News

LANDMARK CRUSADE

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a series of public hearings this spring to determine the fate of a crumbling, 116-year-old church on the Upper West Side, the agency said yesterday.

The ornate red sandstone West Park Presbyterian Church at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is sorely in need of repairs, and its pastor said the only way to raise the funds to do so would be to sell part of the property to a condominium developer.

Pastor Robert Brashear said landmark protection could actually put a halt to the work.

“If the whole structure is landmarked as it is, then the congregation would essentially be condemned,” he said.

Brashear and the 100-member congregation want to sell part of the church’s air rights to a developer of a 21-story condo, a deal that would bring in up to $16 million.

Of that transaction, up to $8 million would go to a massive renovation, and the rest toward community projects.

But neighborhood activists claim the condo would alter the building’s character.

Kate Wood, executive director of nonprofit preservation committee Landmark West, urged that the historic church be left alone.

“You have to start from a place where you are preserving the building instead of destroying it,” she said. “As long as it’s not a landmark, it’s vulnerable to anything.

“The building is crumbling before our eyes and it obviously needs preserving. Across the board there is a consensus to do this.”

If the church gains landmark status, the landmarks commission would preside over the restoration – and the agency could stall the partial property sale to developer Richmond Housing Company.

“There have been loud and verbal complaints for the changes we want,” Brashear acknowledged, explaining 85 percent of the church would remain untouched except for repairs.

He added that only the east wing, where the church has its offices, would be sold.

Brashear said he realized the dire situation when a 20-pound stone fell from the church and hit the pavement five years ago. No one was injured, but the near-tragedy emphasized the need for repairs.

Construction of the church was completed in 1889. In the last two years its congregation has been holding services two blocks away, in the basement of a church at West End Avenue.

Landmarks-commission chairman Robert Tierney said, “We’ve had many discussions in the past two years with church representatives, elected officials, concerned residents and preservation-advocacy groups about extending landmark protection.”

“A public hearing is the natural outgrowth of these conversations,” agreed Page Cowley, co-chair of Land Use Committee of Community Board 7.

“I’m an architect. I live two blocks away from this building and it will be wonderful to see it restored,” she said.

“Yes, churches need to make money, but will this eviscerate the character of the building?”