ST. LUKE'S CHAPEL
483 Hudson Street
OCTOBER 21, 1935. ABBOTT FILE 21

ST. LUKE'S CHAPEL AND OLD HOUSES
483 Hudsonn Street and 487-493 Hudson Street
JUNE 18, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 133

The same day she photographed 45 Grove Street, Abbott photographed St. Luke's Chapel two blocks west on Hudson Street. Founded in 1822, St. Luke's is the city's third oldest church, after St. Paul's Chapel and St. Mark's-in-the-Bowerie. Unlike its elders, St. Luke's was a simple, country church, built of brick rather than stone, and lacking a steeple. The clear sunny day on which Abbott chose to photograph the church allowed her to emphasize its austere, unadorned form. Looming behind the bell tower is the U.S. Federal Archive Building, a Romanesque Revival warehouse built in the 1890s as the U.S. Appraiser's Stores.

The following June, Abbott rephotographed St. Luke's, including the row houses just north of the chapel, which were part of the church's original plan. Built on land leased from Trinity Church, St. Luke's enclosed its garden and burial grounds with town houses edging the entire block bounded by Greenwich, Barrow, Hudson, and Christopher Streets. Seven Federal houses--their third-floor dormers converted to full floors in the latter half of the nineteenth century--stood on each side of the chapel. Abbott chose this second view for Changing New York.

Although a 1958 renovation allowed for the demolition of several of the row houses and the construction of a modern school, St. Luke's retains its insular, pastoral character. In 1981, the church was carefully restored after a serious fire, and in 1988, the Archive Building was renovated for commercial and residential use.

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