New York’s Top 10 : Historic Buildings – Top 10 Churches and Temples

1. St. Paul’s Chapel

   Completed
   in 1766, this church has a glorious Georgian interior lit by Waterford
   chandeliers. The pew where George Washington prayed after his
   inauguration as president has been preserved .

2. City Hall

   Built
   in 1803–12, this Georgian building with French Renaissance influences
   is one of New York’s finest. The interior features a rotunda circled by
   10 Corinthian columns, opening to twin spiral marble staircases .

   
   

   
   
   

   City Hall’s imposing façade

3. Trinity Church

   This
   lovely, square-towered church has bronze doors designed by Richard
   Morris Hunt. Built in 1839–46, the spire, once the tallest in Manhattan,
   is now dwarfed by Wall Street towers. Alexander Hamilton and Robert Fulton are buried here .

4. St. Patrick’s Cathedral

   James
   Renwick, Jr. designed America’s largest Catholic cathedral (opened in
   1879) in French Gothic style with twin 330-ft (100-m) towers. The
   interior has side altars dedicated to saints and holy figures, chapels,
   and stained-glass windows .

5. Carnegie Hall

   Philanthropist
   Andrew Carnegie financed the city’s first great concert hall, built in
   1891. Major renovation in 1996 restored the wonderful interior bronze
   balconies and ornamental plaster, and added a museum. Corridors are
   lined with memorabilia of the great artists who have performed here.

6. Cathedral of St. John the Divine

   The
   world’s largest cathedral was begun in 1892 and is still a work in
   progress. The part-Romanesque, part-Gothic building is impressive for
   its stonework, enormous nave, bay altar windows, and rose window. The
   seat of New York’s Episcopal archdiocese, the church is the scene of
   many avant-garde musical and theatrical events .

7. New York Stock Exchange

   Opened
   in 1903, the façade of this 17-story edifice is appropriately
   monumental for the building at the center of the U.S. economy. The
   figures on the pediment represent the “sources of American prosperity”.
   “Black Thursday,” the start of the Depression, began here in 1929 .

8. U.S. Custom House

   One
   of the city’s best Neo-Classical buildings, this eight-story structure,
   built in 1907, features an elaborate mansard roof and fine sculptures,
   including four by Daniel Chester French. A 1927 nautical mural by
   Reginald Marsh adorns the huge, oval rotunda .

9. New York Public Library

   This
   white marble, 1911 Beaux Arts edifice is magnificent inside and out.
   Imposing stairways, terraces, and fountains inspire awe; reading rooms
   invite repose. Events and talks are also held here.

10. Grand Central Terminal

    This
    1913 public facility is remarkable for its beauty; the main concourse
    is suffused with natural light and the vaulted ceiling is decorated with
    twinkling constellations .

    
    

    
    
    

    Grand Central Station

Top 10 Churches and Temples