A historic Harlem church with a deep connection to Alexander Hamilton's famed country home is up for sale.
St. Luke's Episcopal Church, located at 435 W 141st Street and Convent Avenue in the Hamilton Heights Historic District, is on the market for $12 million.
The dark-red, sloping church is notable not just for its neo-Romanesque architecture, but for its statue of Alexander Hamilton in the front yard.
That's because more than a century ago the founding father's country home stood right next to the church—and St. Luke's was directly responsible for saving it.
It all began when St. Luke's congregation first moved from Greenwich Village to Harlem in the 1880s and acquired the Grange, the house Hamilton built for his family in 1802.
The Federal-style country home was originally located on 143rd Street but to save it from the wrecking ball St. Luke's moved it two blocks south and used it while building its new church next door.
The St. Luke's in Harlem, designed by Robert H. Robertson (an architect with many city landmarks to his name), eventually opened in 1892.
St. Luke's went through many changes over the years, merging with St. Martin's on Lenox Avenue in the 1940s. Today the old church is covered with netting and surrounded by plywood fencing; services take place at St. Martin's.
In the meantime Hamilton's house, now a National Memorial, was moved for a third time to its current location around the corner in St. Nicholas Park.
St. Luke's now awaits its fate. The listing calls the property a "redevelopment opportunity."
