A Queens community is praying for a $6 million miracle to resurrect an iconic church dismantled nearly two decades ago and rotting away in a local cemetery.
St. Saviour’s Church was a Maspeth mainstay for more than 160 years until its wooden façade and stained-glass windows were removed piece by piece in 2008 — to make way for a warehouse.
Today, the remnants of the Carpenter Gothic-style Episcopal Church remain disassembled but mostly intact, stored two miles away in a pair of trailers parked at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.
“I think it’s just a travesty that it’s been sitting around like that for the last 18 years and deteriorating away,” said Paul Pogozelski, president of the Middle Village Residents Association. “If we let it sit around for another 18 years, it definitely won’t be able to be built again.”
Attempts by pols, preservationists and community leaders to find a new site, and an estimated $6 million-plus to rebuild it, have repeatedly come up short.
Now, the project is in purgatory because the cemetery wants the trailers off its property. The graveyard operators have openly discussed putting the land to more profitable use, such as hosting a battery storage farm.
The cemetery would welcome having the church rebuilt on another part of its property for use as a chapel, James McClelland, the cemetery’s treasurer, told the Middle Village Residents Association during a Feb. 3 meeting.
“We’re willing to find a spot on our property, but we can’t do it without financial support,” said McClelland, who estimated the cost to restore the church between $6 million to $7 million.
Members of the New York Landmarks Conservancy inspected the trailers Jan. 22 and issued a report saying much of the wood inside “appeared to be in good condition.”
Among the significant rebuilding challenges is replacing some wood charred in a 1970 fire.
Judge David Jones, son-in-law of former NYC Mayor and NY Governor DeWitt Clinton, organized the church, which Robert Upjohn, the architect behind Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, designed. Built from redwood, St. Saviour’s opened in 1847 along what is now Rust Street and 57th Drive.
After St. Saviour’s merged with another nearby church in the mid-1990s, it was sold to San Sung Korean Methodist Church for a reported $450,000. In 2005, the Korean church flipped the site for $7.5 million to a developer who intended to demolish what was then Masbeth’s oldest building.
Local pols and activists rallied to save the church, but fell short trying to convince the city to purchase it or protect it through landmark designation.
But ex-Councilman Bob Holden, then president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, was able to cut an 11th-hour deal in 2008 protecting the church from turning to rubble.
The moderate Queens Democrat helped raise $250,000 and worked with the conservancy and other volunteer groups to carefully dismantle the church and create blueprints for its reconstruction.
The JPCA cut a deal with the cemetery to store the timbers in trailers at All Faith’s at no charge. The JPCA’s leaders now contend the potential rebirth of St. Savior’s is being used by rival political factions and civic groups to score points with voters.
Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens), Holden’s predecessor and ally, told The Post he’s had positive talks with Mayor Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin about trying to secure funding to save the church and is “focused on results — not drama.”
“The last thing this community needs is people who’ve never been part of this effort suddenly trying to insert themselves for attention,” added Wong, without naming names.
