Our Lady of Esperanza
Sunday, 20 April 2008 — 11:59 pm
The Church of Our Lady of Esperanza, 156th Street & Broadway. The Church was built by Archer Huntington at the urging of Doña Manuela de Laverrerie de Barril and designed by Huntington’s brother Charles. The sanctuary lamp was a gift from King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The present façade dates from 1924, when the Church was expanded under the direction of Lawrence G. White, the son of Stanford White of McKim Mead & White and himself a partner in his father’s firm.
And what of the interior?
Handsome, though with an infelicitous (but easily fixable) modern altar arrangement.
Somewhat small and cozy actually; it must have felt like little more than a chapel before the expansion.
(I did not have my camera the one time I went inside.)
The lady working in the office was happy to let me in when I visited on a weekday around 1 PM.