FROM ABYSSINIAN TO ZION: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship
David W. Dunlap, . . Columbia Univ. Press, $69.50 (391pp) ISBN 978-0-231-12543-7
With 899 photographs and 24 maps, this encyclopedia of congregations and religious buildings in Manhattan is an indispensable resource for anyone who is interested in religion and architecture in the city. Published in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society, the book is not organized by neighborhood or denomination, but alphabetically. Most entries are a single paragraph long and focus on architectural features: Holy Fathers Russian Orthodox Church is a "Fabergé Easter egg of an architectural treat," while the Salvation Army headquarters on West 14th Street resembles "a medieval citadel" and the design of the Park East Synagogue is "almost hallucinatory" in its grandiosity. Several New York landmarks warrant page-long historical entries, including Saint Patrick's Cathedral ("
Reviewed on: 05/10/2004
Genre: Nonfiction
Hardcover - 400 pages - 978-0-231-12542-0
Other - 400 pages - 978-0-231-50072-2