By Nathan Duke
The civic has been fighting for more than one year to preserve the church, located at 57-40 58th St. in Maspeth, but a developer is currently planning to build apartments at the site. The civic filed a lawsuit last spring against the developer, arguing that an 1878 deed for the property limits the site's usage for church or community use. A temporary restraining order was issued at the site in May, but it was lifted by the State Supreme Court in August. Holden said the civic recently received a letter from archeological consultant Linda Stone, who wrote that the site could possibly have been used for burials.In the letter, she wrote, “There is no doubt that the St. Savior's Church property … has archeological potential. With the currently available information, it is not possible to eliminate the possibility of finding human remains.” She also wrote that the site could contain Revolutionary War remains. The civic previously made a failed attempt to get the site landmarked and a city Landmarks Preservation Committee spokeswoman said that status remains the same.”The LPC archeology department's environmental review of the Maspeth rezoning was a standard review that stated there may be archeological remains on the block where St. Saviour's Church is located,” she said. “This finding did not alter the agency's determination that the site does not meet the criteria for landmark designation.”Holden said the civic's online petition asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to save the site has received more than 1,000 signatures.”As of now, the church and land are for sale, and this is the perfect opportunity for Mayor Bloomberg to show he is serious about having every city resident within 10 minutes walking distance of a park,” he said, referring to a mayoral plan to address population growth in the city by 2030. “Every year the city finds it has billions of dollars in income it didn't expect. It's time to spend some of that money in Maspeth and save a piece of our rapidly disappearing history.”
