Location and Access
The Cathedral is located between Cathedral parkway (110th street,) Amsterdam avenue, 113th street, and Morningside drive.
The Cathedral can be reached by taking the Broadway subway to 110th street and walking one block east and two north; the Broadway surface line to 112th street and walking one block east; the Amsterdam avenue surface line to the entrance at 112th street; the 6th and 9th avenue elevated line to 110th street and walking two blocks west and two north; or Fifth avenue omnibuses marked route “4” via 110th street, or ’buses transferring thereto.
Morningside Heights being 100 feet above the level of the adjacent Harlem Plain, the Cathedral commands a sweeping prospect toward the northeast, east, and southeast, over the roofs of the city and past the trees of Central Park to the regions beyond the Harlem and East rivers; while from the main entrance at Amsterdam avenue and 112th street, one can look westward to the Hudson and see the columned Palisades on the New Jersey shore beyond. Morningside Heights is the modern name for the ground on which the battle of Harlem Heights was fought on September 16, 1776. Washington, whose figure occupies a niche in the Choir Parapet ([page 51]) and adorns the entrance to the Synod House ([p. 114]), personally directed the troops in this engagement. At that period an old colonial road ran through the Cathedral site and down the Heights of Morningside Park to the ancient King’s Highway or Post Road. During the War of 1812, the Cathedral grounds were immediately within the lines of defence erected in 1814, one of the blockhouses of which stood on the bluff on the eastern side of Morningside drive just northeast of 113th st.[3]
The Cathedral grounds,—called the “Close,” from the practice in olden times of securing the privacy of the cathedral precincts by enclosing them with a wall and gates,—comprise 11½ acres. Upon them are situated, besides the Cathedral, the Old Synod House (brick with columned portico, formerly the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum,) the Bishop’s House and Deanery, the Choir School, the New Synod House, and St. Faith’s Training School for Deaconesses. See plan and descriptions of buildings hereafter. The Close cost $850,000 and the buildings other than the Cathedral about $1,000,000. A portion of the Close is set apart for recreation grounds for the boys of the choir; and a portion of the lawn as a playground for small children.