Open House New York (cellphone) photoblog

Open House New York ended yesterday after opening more than 150 site to the public free of charge over the weekend. As previously mentioned on Slavs of New York, there were several sites of interest to the local Slavic community. One of the most interesting was site #103, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street).



(above) Exterior of the church, as seen from inside OHNY site #91 New York City Marble Cemetery, just across the street.


From 1903 until 1970, this was the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church in America. The parish was founded in 1870, lost its original building (St. Nicholas on East 97th Street) to the Soviet Government in 1925 and purchased the current building (a former German Reformed church) in 1943.

(above) Interior of the church.


(above) Cat-acumen, the parish cat. According to Fr. Michael, cats are the only animals allowed in Orthodox churches, because they help keep them clean by catching mice.

(above) Icon of the three saints of New York City. The middle one is St. Tikhon, who moved the seat of the Church from San Francisco to New York in 1903, and to his left is St. Raphael of Brooklyn.
(above) And finally, one of the choicest finds in the cathedral was this icon of St. Olga, done in a Gustav Klimt-inspired Art Nouveau/Secession style, *very* rare for an Orthodox icon.
Also on the list of OHNY sites was #61, Harry F. Sinclair House (Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 East 79th Street).
(above) View of the ballroom.
For more OHNY shots , check out Curbed's Monday AM Linkage: Open House NY Edition (which includes Slavs of New York in the list o'links!)