NEW YORK – The New York Landmarks Conservancy, a private non-profit organization, has announced that Annunciation Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was awarded a $25,000 Sacred Sites Challenge Grant to help fund church door, stained glass, and masonry restoration.

Sacred Sites Grants totaling $260,000 have been awarded to historic religious properties throughout New York state. Altogether, the church plans to spend nearly $300,000 on exterior restoration work.

Constructed as the Fourth Presbyterian Church, this Upper West Side church complex, with a prominent corner location, was designed by the architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge, and built in 1893-1894. The church contains outstanding opalescent glass windows designed by the Tiffany Studios, Benjamin Sellars, and Rafael Guastavino.

An iconostasis and other liturgical furnishings were added to the interior in 1953 when the building was acquired by Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.

The Metropolitan Greek Chorale is based at the church, and the Rachmaninoff Choir, an Eastern Orthodox Choral group based in Maine, holds annual concerts at the church.

The parish house provides space for several secular programs, including the Young People’s Choir of New York, the New Amsterdam Fencing Academy, a Greek dance troupe, SPOP, special programs for older people, a Russian language preschool, and rehearsal space for New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

Combined, these activities reach over 1,000 people a year.