A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from May 04, 2005
St. John the Unfinished (St. John the Divine)
The Cathedral church of St. John the Divine on Morningside Heights (110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue) was started in the 1890s and is still not finished. It's been called St. John('s) the Unfinished since the 1960s.

4 November 1965, New York Times, pg. 49:
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Morningside Heights, irreverently known as St. John the Unfinished, received a gift from England yesterday.

21 November 1966, New York Times, pg. 1:
Under construction for three-quarters of a century, the Gothic cathedral is affectionately dubbed by its neighbors as St. John's the Unfinished.

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,836609,00.html
2 December 1966, Time magazine:
To its neighbors on Manhattan's Morningside Heights, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is known as "St. John the Unfinished." Hampered by a shortage of funds, materials and skilled craftsmen, construction of the world's second largest church* has proceeded at a medieval pace. After three-fourths of a century, the building is only two-thirds complete; the skeletal scaffolding on the incomplete portal towers has stayed in place for 25 years simply because it would cost too much ($70,000 nowadays) to take it down.

29 October 1967, Los Angeles Times, pg. F3:
Sometimes affectionately called "St. John's the Unifinished," the cathedral is still only two-thirds completed.

16 July 1976, New York Times, pg. 70:
The vast Gothic cathedral was started in 1892 and is still not complete. (New Yorkers like to call the building St. John the Unfinished.)

16 February 1987, St. Petersburg Times, City, pg. 4:
Although construction on the cathedral began in 1892, it has never been finished. It's often referred to as ``St. John the Unfinished.``

14 June 1989, Dallas Morning News, "St. John the Unfinished," pg. 1C:
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan -- occasionally called St. John the Unfinished -- will be the largest of its kind on Earth. Begun nearly a century ago, work on the cathedral that rises from Morningside Heights near Columbia University was stalled by two world wars and a lack of funds that left the stone yard idle from the '40s through the '70s. Construction began anew in 1979, and it is estimated that, in addition to the centuries, $80 million is needed to complete the grand design.

20 December 1992, New York Times, Arts & Leisure, pg. 34:
A week from today, New York's greatest post-modern skyscraper celebrates its 100th birthday. And the building is barely two-thirds complete. An absurdity? An anachronism? No more so than the building itself: the glorious Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
(...)
It has been going on since Dec. 27, 1892, when the cornerstone was laid. There have been interruptions. Now and then, the cathedral has halted construction to re-examine its motives or rethink its design. These ruminations have contributed to the impression that "St. John the Unfinished" is the existential cathedral, a building at once alienated and engaged.

20 November 1994, New York Times, City, section 13, pg. 1:
ANNALS OF ST. JOHN THE UNFINISHED

10 January 1999, New York TImes, City, section 14, pg. 1:
St. John The Unfinished

Dean of Cathedral on Morningside Heights Vows to Fix What He's Got, Not Build More

5 December 1999, New York Post, "St. John's is an Eternal Work in Progress" by Gersh Kuntzman, pg. 2:
After 107 years, the world's largest Gothic cathedral -- known to its parishioners as "St. John the Unfinished" -- will probably never be done.

24 October 2004, New York Times, City, section 14, pg. 6:
St. John the Unfinished Becomes St. John the Downsized

Posted by Barry Popik
Buildings/Housing/Parks • Wednesday, May 04, 2005 • Permalink


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