Real Estate Williamsburg

Check out the landmarked church J.C. Cady designed near the Marcy Avenue subway station

Eye On Real Estate

March 14, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Williamsburg is a designated city landmark. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

Share this:

Steps away from Williamsburg’s Marcy Avenue subway station, a terrific city landmark stands tall.

And we mean tall.

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church has a bell tower that’s four stories high.

The place is huge — a Sunday school and parsonage are part of the package.

St. Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church, as it was originally called, was designed by J.C. Cady. This prominent late-19th-century architect designed an addition to the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Here's a glimpse of St. Paul's through the trees on South 5th Street.

The Williamsburg house of worship he designed has a stone name plate over a door on its South 5th Street facade with the church’s German-language name on it.

Red-brick and terra-cotta St. Paul’s was built in 1884-1885 to serve the German immigrants who lived in the area and worked in — or owned — its sugar refineries and breweries.

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 2011 designation report says the church at 334 South 5th St. is Romanesque Revival — a style that had German origins. Cady got his professional training from a German immigrant architect.

Today much of the congregation is Spanish-speaking rather than German-speaking.

A new apartment tower and old-fashioned rowhouses

When you decide to pay a visit to St. Paul’s, the easiest way to get there is to ride the J or M train to the Marcy Avenue stop. One of the above-ground station’s exit staircases is right around the corner from the church.

The area around the Marcy Avenue station is full of urban eye candy. Nearby, on the streets bordering Williamsburg Bridge Plaza, there are bank buildings that were constructed more than a century ago. See related story.

Interesting sights begin on the train platforms before you even leave the station. For instance, from up on high you get a good view of Midwood Investment and Development’s new 13-story tower rental-apartment complex, which is called The Williams.

Its address is 282 South 5th St.