Summary

Creator: St. Luke's Hospital Center.  Richard Bolling Memorial Library 
Title: Collection of documents about the Church of the Holy Communion
Dates: 1854-1960
Volume: 1 box (2.5 inches)

Provenance

It is unknown when these materials came into the possession of the Richard Bolling Memorial Library at St. Luke’s Hospital Center, but it is believed that over the course of time historical items found around the Hospital buildings were deposited in the Library for safe-keeping. The materials were transferred to the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives in June of 2016 after the 2013 merger of the Continuum Health Partners, Inc. (consisting of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Beth Israel Medical Center and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary) and The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Historical Note

The Church of the Holy Communion was a member of the Protestant Episcopal denomination. It was the first church in NYC to do away with charging a pew rental fee, encouraging the rich and poor to worship together, and it was one of the first to offer a weekly communion service The building’s construction was funded by Mrs. Mary Muhlenberg Rogers, who wished to fulfill the request of her late husband to build a church in the city ‘where rich and poor might meet together,’ and that her brother, the Rev. William A. Muhlenberg would pastor. The Gothic Revival church, located at West 20th Street and Sixth Avenue, was designed by Richard Upjohn. It was built between 1844 and 1846 and was consecrated in 1846. In 1850 Upjohn added a rectory and parish house, and designed the Sister’s House in 1853.

Rev. Muhlenberg was especially conscious of the poor in the surrounding areas and offered many ministry outreaches to them through the church. Early in the life of the community, a small group of faithful women gathered to devote their lives to supporting this arm of the church’s work. Calling themselves a Sisterhood, as they wished to distance themselves from Roman Catholic practice, they based their ideals on a group of Lutheran Deaconesses from Kaiserswerth, Germany who served the church there by nursing and teaching.  The Sisterhood was formally incorporated in 1851, though the first to make her vows, Anne Ayres, did so in 1845. They ran a girls’ school for a time, and in 1853 opened a small 15-bed infirmary in the house next door to theirs. The Infirmary was often called the “Little St. Luke’s,” or “Infant St. Luke’s,” and it was referred to as such by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which conferred landmark status to the church buildings in 1966.

When St. Luke’s Hospital opened in 1858, the Sisters acted as the head nurses, with Sister Anne as House Matron over them and non-medical hospital staff. Their work was closely tied to the organization of the hospital, and Sister Anne was second-in-command to Rev. Muhlenberg and worked closely with him through their lives. In 1876 the Trustees gave her the title, “Sister-Superintendent” with powers co-ordinate with those of Rev. Muhlenberg. As nursing, teaching and other welfare functions the Sisters initially provided developed into their own separate professions, the numbers of the Sisterhood, which was never a very large group, declined and it ceased with the death of its last members in 1934.

Rev. Muhlenberg died April 8, 1877 and was buried in the cemetery of St. Johnland’s Convalescent Home, another work he founded to care for disabled children and the elderly on the north shore of Long Island. Sister Anne retired after his death and spent her time organizing his papers, editing the two volume work by Muhlenberg titled The Evangelical Catholic Papers, and writing a biography of Muhlenberg. In 1896 she assisted with the move of St. Luke’s Hospital to its new home at 113^th St., caught a severe case of bronchitis, and died a few weeks later, at the age of 80 years.  She is buried in St. Johnland’s cemetery, next to Rev. Muhlenberg.

By the mid-20^th century the area around the church had become highly industrialized and the congregation began to decrease in size. In 1976, the congregations of the Church of the Holy Communion, Calvary Church, and St. George's Church, all of which were struggling with shrinking memberships, merged, and formed the Calvary-St. George’s Parish, two churches which meet at Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Square Park. The Church of the Holy Communion's building was deconsecrated and sold to the Odyssey Institute, which used it as a drug rehabilitation facility. In 1983, the Odyssey Institute sold the building to Peter Gatien, who recreated it as The Limelight disco. Becoming notorious as a drug market place, The Limelight was closed in 1996. Since then, the building interior (the exterior was landmarked in 1966) has been re-created as an art studio, a shopping mall, a restaurant and a fitness club.

Arrangement Note

As mentioned above, materials were not collected in a systematic fashion, but were brought to the medical librarian when found on the Hospital premises, or donated by former students or staff or by their families. Therefore, an order was imposed by the archivist.

Scope and Content

This is a small collection. Of particular significance are the two patient registers, or casebooks, of the Infirmary which report on the condition of the patients the Sisters nursed. The last page of the second volume refers to the transition to the new St. Luke’s Hospital in 1858. The collection also includes several historical sketches of the church, a program from the 90^th anniversary service, a short biography of Anne Ayres, the first Sister, is included as well as a portrait of her, and pictures of the church building. (Note that these have been moved to the Archives Photograph Collection.) A Founders’ Day sermon from 1927 and a charming Christmas card from a Miss Roberts and Sister Anne are also found in the collection.

Restrictions on Access

There are no restrictions to accessing these records.

Related Materials

• St. Luke’s Hospital Records
• St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center Records
• The Rev. William A. Muhlenberg Collection.

Subjects

• Ayres, Anne, 1816-1896
• Biographies
• Episcopal Church
• Historical sketch
• Medical records
• Muhlenberg, William Augustus, 1796-1877
• Nuns as nurses
• Nuns as teachers
• Photographs
• Sermons
• Sisterhood of the Holy Communion
• St. Luke’s Hospital (New York, N.Y.)

Container List

Processed by Nancy M. Panella; guide written by Michala Biondi, May 2018, updated February 2020