LONG ISLAND CITY — The New York Landmarks Conservancy announced that it will honor St. Raphael Church, along with more than a dozen buildings and individuals, at an awards ceremony on April 22.
The church, which is one of the oldest in Queens, will receive the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, which will honor the parish’s $2 million renovation project to the building’s exterior.
The annual awards are the Convervancy’s “highest honors for outstanding preservation efforts named for a dedicated New Yorker whose generosity benefited the city for more than 50 years.”
Father Paul Kim, pastor of St. Raphael Church, oversaw the renovation, which wrapped in October 2024. His predecessor, Father Jerry Jecewiz, got the project rolling with a capital campaign. Much of the money was raised by the parish, although the New York Landmarks Conservancy contributed a $20,000 grant from its Sacred Sites program.
St. Raphael Church, completed in 1881, was designed by prominent Brooklyn architect Thomas Houghton, said Carlo Zaskorski, whose firm, Zaskorski & Associates Architects, was hired to handle the renovation.
Zaskorski said that, during the design phase, Houghton was working in the firm of his father-in-law, the famed church designer Patrick Keely, who is often credited for the work. Still, Zaskorski added, the church is a quintessential Keely design — Gothic-revival in style with a tall steeple and red brick façade.
Many of the bricks, however, cracked over time and were covered in the 1960s and 1980s with stucco. Zaskorski said the stucco was scored to look like the original brick, but they had to remove it because “it’s very poor quality and was peeling off the building, and was also causing leaks.”
Zaskorski’s team renovated the facade by replacing cracked bricks in addition to providing it with a major cleaning. Extensive research went into the composition of the bricks to accurately replace them. Thus, the new ones and mortar joints now match the colors of the originals, Zaskorski explained.
In addition, stained-glass windows were refurbished, while the roof, gutters, and deteriorated wooden window frames were also replaced, he said. The steeple, which can be seen from the Long Island Expressway, was also rebuilt.
“It’s very prominent,” Zaskorski said.
St. Raphael Parish celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019. According to the parish’s history, it was initially formed in the 1800s to serve local Catholics near Calvary Cemetery. Cemetery workers, many of whom were German and Irish immigrants, began to settle nearby and joined the parish.
Today, the congregation is composed of nearly equal amounts of English, Spanish, and Korean-speaking Catholics.
The 35th Annual Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards ceremony is slated for 6 p.m. on April 22 at the Edison Ballroom, 240 West 47th St., in Midtown.
MORE INFO:
For information on the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the 35th Annual Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards, visit: nylandmarks.org