NYC Cathedral

[nick cobb]

November 26, 2000; 3:31pm EST

Old Czarist-Soviet Battleground Enters a New Age

CHRISTOPHER GRAY
11/26/00 ....... NEW YORK TIMES

THE Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas, at 15
East 97th Street, was built in 1902 and soon became an
American battleground for conflicts between czarist
and Soviet Russians. Now, a decade after the fall of
communism and the end of the officially atheistic
Soviet state, a new bishop, fresh from Moscow, is
planning renovations and modernization.

The Church of St. Nicholas was established in the
early 1890's in rented rooms on lower Second Avenue to
serve an increasing number of Russian immigrants. By
1899 it had 300 members, and a movement began to build
a new church. The congregation chose an inexpensive
uptown location at 97th Street off Fifth Avenue, in an
area that was beginning to emerge as a neighborhood of
modest flats.

Czar Nicholas II made the first donation to the
building fund, 5,000 rubles, then about $2,500. In May
1901, when the cornerstone was laid, it bore a silver
plaque praising him. "Long live the emperor of Russia
and the president of the United States," proclaimed
the Rev. Alexander Hotovitsky, the minister.

The building was designed according to the
characteristic Russian model, with seven domes above a
dark red brick facade trimmed with limestone and
glazed tile in green, blue and yellow. The curving
ribs of the domes were of gilt bronze, contrasting
with the green painted galvanized iron surface.

The building was designed by John Bergesen, who was
often referred to as being of Russian birth. But on
census returns he listed his birthplace sometimes as
Finland and other times as Sweden.

In 1904, the crowd outside the church was so huge when
Bishop Tikhon dedicated a new iconostasis, or altar
screen, that the police had to hold them back. At that
time a New York Times reporter marveled at the exotic,
incense-laden atmosphere: "The air was heavy with
perfume, and the multitude of sacred candles shedding
a dim light throughout the church combined with the
solemn chant of choristers and the psalm singers to
produce a quaint splendor seldom surpassed in this
city."
But Montgomery Schuyler, the critic for The
Architectural Record, was not similarly moved, calling
the church building "ugly and freakish."

The next year the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox
Church moved from San Francisco to New York, and St.
Nicholas became the cathedral of the American church.
That same year, amid rising civil strife, Grand Duke
Sergius was assassinated by a bomb in Moscow, rumors
of a bombing plot against the cathedral were
circulating and the czar granted some powers to the
Duma, a new legislative body.

Czar Nicholas abdicated in 1917 and was murdered the
next year. After the Communists came to power they
began remaking the Russian church to fit the goals of
an atheist state. Priests and bishops were persecuted
and fled Russia, replaced by clerics who were willing
to accommodate themselves to the party line. Early in
1920 Bolshevik sympathizers disrupted a communion
service at St. Nicholas, but were thrown out by the
faithful.

In 1923 the Rev. John. F. Kedrovsky was sent by Moscow
to take over the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and the $3
million in property controlled by the Russian Orthodox
church. Newspaper accounts indicate that the
congregation was generally anti-Communist. Father
Kedrovsky was carried out of the building and down the
steps onto 97th Street, kicking and screaming. He
later took his case to court.

THE police helped the Communists enter the rectory in
July 1925 and take over St. Nicholas, but it was
reoccupied by the anti-Communists in August, and
pictures of the late czar were still being sold in the
church in December of that year. The police came back
in April 1926, when the New York State Appellate Court
ruled in favor of the Communists, and Father Kedrovsky
was installed again; although he had to send to
Hartford for robes, because those in the church had
been removed by the losing faction.

In the following decades St. Nicholas had an uneasy
time as the official church of an officially atheistic
country that was to many Americans the enemy of the
United States.

In the 1920's, a non-Communist church, the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, was set up; it now
has headquarters in the old George F. Baker mansion at
75 East 93rd Street.

Last April, Aleksy II, the patriarch of the Orthodox
Church in Moscow, sent Bishop Mercurius to take over
St. Nicholas. "He asked me if I had ever been to
America," Bishop Mercurius said through an
interpreter. "And I said, 'No.' And he said, 'O.K.,
go,' "

The bishop is working on a restoration for the
cathedral's centennial; with the architect Stephen
Papadatos he is planning decorative work on the
interior, a facade cleaning, gilding of the domes and
a two-story setback addition to the rectory, to the
left of the cathedral. The building was designated a
landmark in 1973, and Landmarks Preservation
Commission approval is required for any exterior work,
Mr. Papadatos said.

Bishop Mercurius said he is seeking many changes at
St. Nicholas, where there is no exterior sign
announcing the days and times of services, and where
the gates on the front steps are often locked. "The
cathedral has to be open every day, regardless," he
said. "A lock on the door of a cathedral is not a good
thing."

He and Mr. Papadatos say that work will begin this
winter on repair and repainting of the icons, probably
a $1 million project, for which they have raised
$100,000 so far. Other work, they said, will add $4
million or so more — planning and pricing is
still under way. In terms of raising the money for the
500-member congregation the bishop will say only that
"God will provide; one person will give a dollar,
somebody else will give $100,000."