St. Saviour's Saga Continues in Queens

Queens has been long ignored by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but the 160-year-old St. Saviour's in Maspeth has gotten a lot more attention than the likes of Jack Kerouac's old stomping grounds. In fact, Curbed recalls that at one point, "a deal was worked out to save the main church building and relocate it to a nearby cemetery, while the Parks Department works on a potential deal to acquire the land and turn it into a much-needed park." Here's a complete timeline of the saga.

Recently some early morning work on the site got the locals worked up and yielded 311 calls and complaints to the DOB. One activist took photos and video yesterday, reporting back that, "There was a partial stop work order in effect which stated that there could be no excavation within 20 feet of the damaged retaining wall and that they were to repair the shoddy construction fence. So they were replacing the fence manually while excavating the wall with heavy equipment without any protection whatsoever for the public. I can't really describe in words what was going on there — you have to watch these videos to understand. But the arm of the backhoe was swinging out over the sidewalk and they were driving it on top of an unstable mound of dirt. Both 311 and 911 were called but no one came."

Later on a 10-foot section of the stone wall collapsed, at which point a partial stop work order was placed on the site, which now must undergo commissioner-ordered periodic inspections. Also, the 1878 deed states that "the land may only be used for a church," so consider this site cursed.