St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Watervliet New York

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St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church is a Ukrainian-inspired religious design in Albany County, New York. Designed by the German-born architect Bernhardt Noack (1850- 1908), the building features traditional Ukrainian religious design vocabulary including round-arched fenestration and a proliferation of onion domes, features derived from Eastern European precedents. Begun in 1906 and completed two years later, St. Nicholas has served the local Ukrainian Catholic population for nearly one hundred years and remains one of Watervliet's most distinctive ecclesiastical architectural statements. The church is likewise significant for its cultural associations with the settlement of the Cohoes-Troy-Watervliet area by large numbers of Ukrainian immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since its completion, St. Nicholas has served continuously as a worship center and gathering place for the Ukrainian Catholic population of the greater Watervliet area and remains the preeminent architectural statement of this cultural group in the city. The church's Eastern European architectural roots, particularly as expressed in its multiple onion domes, lends the building its distinctive identity and reinforce the cultural heritage of its erectors.

The campaign to construct St. Nicholas resulted from the significant growth of the local Ukrainian Catholic parish in the Troy region, which itself emerged from the formation of the Benevolent Fraternity of St. Nicholas, established in 1895. With considerable numbers of Ukrainians of the Catholic faith settling in Cohoes, South Troy, and West Troy (now Watervliet) toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Benevolent Fraternity was organized to forward the formation of a local parish. A majority of the earliest immigrants came to the Capital District region to work from an area in present-day western Ukraine, Lemkivshyna; while many remained in America others eventually returned to Europe. In 1897 the Fraternity purchased a frame meetinghouse in South Troy and the First Ukrainian Catholic Church was established, providing a much-needed place of assembly for the parish. The first Ukrainian liturgy was conducted in Troy by Father Ivan Zaklilinsky in September of that year. Yet as the Ukrainian population of the area continued to grow it became apparent that a new building would be necessary to accommodate the expanding parish. In January 1900 a certificate of incorporation for St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church was filed in the Rensselaer County clerk's office and plans for a new masonry building begin to move forward.

The current building was originally conceived to serve the Ukrainian Catholic populations of Watervliet, Cohoes, and South Troy, a scenario that temporarily undermined the construction campaign and briefly placed the completion of the church in doubt. Watervliet was selected as the site for the new building due to its centralized location. In 1905 the parish initiated a fundraising campaign and collected over $4,500 towards the goal of a new house of worship. In February 1906 the parish acquired a building and lot at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty Fourth Street at the cost of $1,650. The existing structure was razed and the ground blessed at a ceremony officiated by Father John Dorozinsky shortly thereafter. Bernhardt Noack, a Troy-based architect of German extraction and former associate of Troy architect M.F. Cummings, was engaged to provide plans for the new building. Noack's watercolor and ink perspective view of the proposed building remains in the possession of the church.

Construction on the new building and an adjacent parish house likely began in the fall of 1906, as the walls of the church were well underway by the time the cornerstone was laid in May 1907. The following is an excerpt of the cornerstone-laying ceremony carried by the Troy Daily Press:

Unfortunately matters worsened in 1907 with the onset of national economic decline and the fracturing of the three-city parish. In the latter months of 1907 funds earmarked for the project were exhausted and parish members in Cohoes and South Troy withdrew their support for the project, leaving the Watervliet Ukrainian community to attempt to finance the remainder of the construction. Given the contemporary economic climate and the sudden undermining of support for the project, the parish, now representing only Watervliet, was faced with a considerable dilemma. Although members extended interest-free loans to the parish in an attempt to raise the necessary funds to complete the building, a considerable financial shortfall remained before the project could be brought to fruition.

Faced with this situation and an uncompleted building, the parish contacted the Most Rev. Thomas Burke, Roman Catholic Bishop of Albany, and, in the words of one church history, "presented their plight to him." Bishop Burke quickly accommodated the parish's plea. Following a personal visit to the site of the uncompleted church by the Bishop, a loan of $20,000 was extended to the parish by Troy Savings Bank, and St. Nicholas was incorporated into the Albany Diocese. St. Nicholas is currently part of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese, located in Stamford, Connecticut. The complex was completed in spring 1908, at which time the church was blessed by the Most Rev. Soter Ortinsky, the first Ukrainian Bishop in America. Nearby in Cohoes, north of the new church, one of the offshoots of the original multi-city parish constructed a small masonry building with a central onion-domed tower and round-arched fenestration on Ontario Street, the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Paul, which was completed in 1907.

Bernhardt J. Noack was born in Zittau, Saxony, in 1850 and came to this country in 1868. He received his architectural education in Germany, where he also learned the carpenter and mason trade at which he worked for five years, and upon arriving in this country worked as a mason in New York City; he then went into an architect's office for two years in New York city, and in 1871 came to Troy and entered the office of M.F. Cummings, where he remained until 1892, when he opened an office for himself at 257 Broadway. He had charge of the construction of a number of breweries and malt houses of Troy and vicinity, and a great many of the stores and residences of that city and vicinity were designed by him. He was a member of Apollo Lodge, F. & A.M., Apollo Chapter, R.A.M., Knights of Pythias, and Odd Fellows. He also belonged to the Turn Verein and Saengerbund and Maennerchor Societies. He was married to Julia Baumeister of Troy, who died in 1884. His second wife was Louise M. (Frank) Noack of Albany, to whom he was married April 22^nd, 1896. He lived and kept his office at 105 Fourth Street, Troy.

Following his time in Cummings office Noack established his own Troy-based office; an advertisement in the 1896 Troy City Directory listed his office at 257 Broadway, Room 5. A small notation below his name reads "formerly with M.F. Cummings," whose office, M.F. Cummings & Son, is advertised directly above. St. Nicholas was undoubtedly among the last major commissions entertained by the architect, since Noack died in September 1908 at his Thirteenth Street house in Watervliet, just a few months after the completion of the church. His passing was noted in obituaries and funeral notices in the Troy Times and the Troy Daily Press.

It is unknown how Noack secured the commission for the new Ukrainian church, known then as St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church, an eighteenth-century name used to distinguish it from the Roman and Armenian Catholic churches. Noack may have enjoyed a relationship with a parish member or might have gained the commission on the merit of his design during an open competition. The boss mason for the project was Michael Nolan, and Thomas Sheehan oversaw the carpentry work; the roofing was supervised by James Hamil and the plumbing by James Kennedy. Typed specifications for the masonry, carpentry and gas, plumbing and heating systems, all drawn up by and signed by Noack, survive in the possession of the church.

Although in form St. Nicholas is essentially a linear-form building with an engaged central tower, it is in its prominent onion-domed towers and round-arched fenestration that Noack gave the building its distinctive Eastern European look and linked it to Ukrainian precedents. Working from unknown design sources, Noack, who may have encountered onion-domed buildings during his youth, his birthplace of Zittau is situated east of Dresden where Germany, Poland and the present-day Czech Republic meet. The architect offered a design expressive of the domed religious structures so prominent to the skyline of Kiev in Ukraine. Whether a modest rural structure of frame design or a considerable urban example of masonry construction, onion domes have crowned the religious buildings of Russia and the Ukraine since the eleventh or twelfth century A.D. In adopting Byzantine-Romanesque design vocabulary and employing the distinctive onion-profiled dome, Noack's design distinguished the Ukrainian Catholics from their Italian, German and Irish Catholic neighbors, whose architectural programs were most often of a decidedly Gothic character. Conceived to accommodate the growing numbers of Ukrainian Catholics in the greater Cohoes-Troy-Watervliet region, St. Nicholas was and remains a distinctive assertion of that cultural group's roots and aspirations.

A significant rehabilitation of the church's interior and exterior was undertaken in the late 1940s, during the pastorates of Father Andrew Chlystun and Father Bohdan Volosin. Prior to leaving for a new assignment, Chlystun spearheaded efforts to raise funds within the parish to repair the church's roof and redecorate the interior, though his tenure ended before this work could be executed. Under the subsequent leadership of Volosin, described in a history of the church as "young, full of energy and an excellent administrator," the interior of the church was re-plastered and the worship space redecorated by an Italian firm from New York City. It was at this time that the exterior brick walls were likewise cleaned and re-pointed and the roof was re-clad with copper, replacing the original slate roof. In February 1950 St. Nicholas was rededicated by Bishop Amborse Senyshyn in company with Bishop Edmund Gibbons, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Albany. Total costs associated with this work amounted to $25,000.

In 1957, the year of the church's fiftieth anniversary, a renovation campaign modernized the original basement facilities. The following year, on the advice of a local architect, the center dome was removed to relieve pressure on the roof trusses and ceiling above the nave. In 1964, a new iconostas, tetrapod and side shrines were installed, the woodworking executed by Wasyl Zagrodynyk of Long Island and the icons and apse were redecorated by the Philadelphia artist Christine Dochwat. In 1966 the original bluestone or sandstone trim was replaced with the current limestone trim at the cost of $64,000 and the original steps were replaced with granite steps by the end of that decade.

Building Description

St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church is located on the northeast corner of 4^th Avenue and 24^th Street in the City of Watervliet, Albany County, New York. The overall character of the immediate area can be defined as residential, and is comprised of single and multi-family houses the earliest of which date to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The church and adjacent parish house are located on a rectangular-shaped parcel of land measuring 105 feet on 4^th Avenue by 120 feet on 24^th Street. The church is oriented with its side elevations, north and south, parallel to 24^th Street; the south elevation faces 24^th Street and is separated from the adjacent sidewalk by a narrow strip of grass and cast iron fencing. The parish house is located north of the church and also fronts 4^th Avenue and displays a setback consistent with the church itself. St. Nicholas maintains a prominent architectural presence in this northern section of the City of Watervliet along with nearby St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, a high-naved masonry Gothic Revival-style building located nearby on Nineteenth Street.

St. Nicholas is a large, rectangular-shaped one-story building with load-bearing brick walls built above footings and foundation walls of poured concrete. Interior framing, including floors and roof trusses, consists of primarily of wood with some steel elements. The church, oriented with its primary elevation facing westward toward 4^th Avenue, has exterior walls of buff-colored pressed brick laid in common bond with close joints that front core walls of red brick. Window dressings and other trim is executed in dressed limestone though it seems the original was either sandstone or bluestone. Fenestration is round-arched excepting that corresponding with the raised basement, where fenestration is trabeated. An engaged bell tower crowned by a multi-stage, copper-clad onion dome highlights the west-facing facade. Similar domes, though smaller in scale, rise from engaged towers at the comers of the building's four elevations. The pitched roof, aligned with the ridge of the roof parallel to the side elevations, is clad with raised-seam copper; many other exterior elements, including pediments and cornice moldings, are likewise executed in copper or galvanized iron. The church measures approximately 104 feet east to west by 50 feet north to south. A dressed limestone watertable articulates the division between the primary story and the raised basement.

The church is accessed from 4^th Avenue via a flight of polished pink granite steps that lead to paired round-arched openings. A vestibule with stairs to the gallery and basement are located between the entrance and sanctuary. The interior of the church is given over almost entirely to the well-lighted, rectangular-shaped sanctuary, with a vaulted ceiling, a recessed apse against the east wall, and a gallery at the west end. There is a large church hall with bathrooms and a kitchen at the basement level.

The exterior of St. Nicholas is largely articulated by the rhythm of round-arched bays and corbelling reflecting Romanesque-Byzantine precedents. The facade of the church is five bays in width with paired center entrances set within a projecting pedimented frontispiece which forms the lowest stage of the multi-stage central tower. Above this frontispiece, defined by two round-arched openings with cut limestone impost blocks and pilaster bases, is a large round-arched bay, recessed from the plane of the tower, within which is set a large rose window with wood mullions. The archivolt that forms this recessed bay is formed of molded brick. Above this bay is a band of brick with a geometric diaper pattern formed with contrasting buff and brown colored brick framed with beltcourses of limestone. The main brick mass of the tower is terminated by six round-arched louvered openings; above this is a corbelled and deniticulated cornice. From the hipped roof that covers the lower stage of the tower rises an octagonal-shaped, galvanized iron bell stage, framed in wood, with louvered openings and blind roundels. Above this is a massive copper-clad onion dome with a second galvanized iron stage crowned by a smaller onion dome and Greek cross.

Echoing the mass of the central tower are two smaller towers that frame the ends of the facade. These towers have a round-arched recessed bay within which is placed a tall window separated into two parts by a spandrel panel with a blind roundel above. Above the archivolt of the round arch is a corbelled brick frieze that gives way to a copper-clad denticulated cornice and pediment. From this pediment rises a copper-clad, louvered bell stage and onion dome. The treatment of the northwest tower from frieze level up is identical, although here the wood-framed pediment and bell stage retain their original galvanized iron sheathing, soon to be replicated entirely in copper like the southwest tower. The remaining two bays of the facade, located between the main and secondary towers, is articulated by tall windows with a rounded arched headed arch springing from a limestone beltcourse at impost level; they are also divided into two parts by a spandrel panel. Above this is a corbelled brick frieze and galvanized iron dentil course and cornice. Four windows situated below the belt course on the facade light the west side of the lower level.

The north and south-facing side elevations are similar in conception and consist of recessed arcaded bays the arches of which spring from limestone impost blocks. There are a total of eight bays on the flank elevations, four larger bays flanked to either side by smaller bays, all recessed and spanned by molded brick archivolts. In addition, there is a ninth bay corresponding with the apse, which is set back from the remainder of the side elevations. Windows are round-arched and divided into pairs by central wood mullions with a round lozenge above. Moving westward from the east side, there is a small gabled peak above the

fourth bay that was once flanked by small, onion-domed turrets; there was also once an onion dome and louvered bell stage rising from the ridge of the roof near the center of the building. The central dome was removed in 1957 at the advice of a local architect, due to the pressure it was exerting on the roof framing.

The east-facing elevation, like the remaining elevations, is framed by the engaged corner towers. Abutting the east wall of the main mass of the church is a hip-roofed apse. There are no windows in the recessed bays of the tower on this elevation; fenestration on the east wall of the apse is trabeated. A small onion-domed turret, like those originally found on the flank elevations, rises near the gable peak; a large chimney rises through the cornice near the northeast corner tower.

The primary entrance to the church is located on the west-facing facade. The entrance leads into a vestibule with stairs leading to the basement, gallery and the worship space itself. The worship space is rectangular in shape with two ranks of pews flanking a center aisle that leads from below the gallery toward the recessed apse and sacristy on the east wall. The pews are relatively simple and constructed of oak, with straight backs and rounded ends. The ceiling is formed into a gentle elliptical-shaped plaster vault with plaster on lath and is hung from the roof framing; it springs from a molded plaster cornice. Walls are likewise plaster on lath above beaded-board wainscot to the sill level of the windows. Both the walls and ceiling are embellished with painted religious iconography dating to the last major redecoration of the building, which occurred between 1949 and 1950. The windows are fitted with leaded translucent glass; Noack's specifications called for "leaded crystal sheet glass, colored or obscured, as will be selected." The iconostas in front of the raised altar in the recessed apse was installed in 1964. The worship space is lighted by natural light from the windows and artificial lighting fixtures that hang from the ceiling, highlighted by an elaborate chandelier that is centered above the center aisle.

The basement is utilitarian in function and has a later concrete floor and two rows of steel columns that support steel I-beams that carry the floor joists of the worship space. The basement floor plan consists of the large open church hall, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a boiler room. In addition to the stairs downward from the vestibule, there is likewise an at-grade entrance from the twenty-fourth Street elevation.

The gallery is reached via stairs from the vestibule and has a carpeted floor and beaded-board wainscot; it is partially supported by hanger rods affixed to the roof trusses. A large rose window lights this area. The pews in the gallery are original to the building and may have been moved to their current location when the oak pews were installed.

Front elevation (2003)

Worship space (2003)

Window detail (2003)