Sunday Mass: 10:00 AM ET, in person and via Zoom
If you are joining via Zoom, please do so by 9:55 AM at the latest so a church member can let you into the meeting. Please remain on mute during the Mass — the Zoom is set for speaker view, and any sound will take the focus off of the service. Many thanks!
Bible Study: Thursdays via Zoom
Visit the parish or email for Bible Study details.
The church is open to visitors for prayer and quiet visits from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, including a noonday prayer service in the chapel.
St. Peter's Episcopal Church
2500 Westchester Avenue
Bronx, New York 10461
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 613, Bronx, New York 10461
Office: (718) 931-9270
Email: stpetersbronx@gmail.com
Web: stpeterswsbronx.org
Facebook: St. Peter's Episcopal Church
Get DirectionsBy subway:
By bus:
The churchyard predates the current building, with burials from the Dutch settlement of Oostdorp and colonial-era headstones.
Tour schedule: TBD. Anyone interested in visiting or arranging a tour is welcome to reach out by email at stpetersbronx@gmail.com.
Join us as we mark 333 years with a Choral Mass, a procession to our garden, and an afternoon of fellowship, music, and more.
St. Peter’s has stood in Westchester Square since 1693 — older than the United States itself. Founded by an act of the Provincial Assembly nearly a century before the Declaration of Independence, this parish has carried its congregation through colonial rule, revolution, plague, and three centuries of change in the Bronx. To gather here today is to stand in a line of worship that stretches back further than the nation surrounding it.
The parish is organized by an act of the Provincial Assembly, beginning what is now one of the oldest continuing parishes in New York.
The first church building is erected on the site.
Queen Anne gifts the parish an altar.
King George III grants the parish a royal charter.
During the Revolution, local patriots dismantle a nearby bridge over Westchester Creek to slow advancing British troops. A memorial in the churchyard honors unidentified soldiers believed to have died at the Battle of Throgs Neck.
The parish's old parish house briefly serves as the New York State Capitol, after lawmakers flee a plague in lower Manhattan.
The present Gothic Revival church, the third building on the site, is built to a design by architect Leopold Eidlitz. It is cruciform in plan, constructed of rock-faced schist, with a square corner tower, buttressed corners, and an octagonal belfry.
Foster Hall is built on the cemetery grounds by Leopold Eidlitz, a High Victorian Gothic building originally used as a Sunday school and mortuary chapel.
A fire heavily damages the church. Reconstruction and alterations are led by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, Leopold's son.
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance relocates to the chapel on the church grounds, after previously being housed in the American Bank Note Company Building.
The complex is designated a New York City Landmark.
St. Peter's is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The 6-acre complex is part of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The churchyard holds burials predating the current building, including members of the Dutch settlement of Oostdorp and a memorial gravestone for two unidentified soldiers believed to have died at the Battle of Throgs Neck in October 1776.
Historical photos of the church, circa July 1975. Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Built 1947 · revoiced 1993 by Sebastian M. Glück
The organ in the church gallery was built in 1947 by the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut. After an expansion in 1952, it was revoiced toward the French classic tradition by New York organ builder Sebastian M. Glück in 1993. It has 3 manuals, 43 ranks, and a full pedal board — 2,623 pipes in all.
Great — 610 · Swell — 1,047 · Choir — 854 · Pedal — 112
The history of organs at St. Peter's before the church fire of 1877 is unknown; early instruments were likely small mechanical pipe organs or pumped harmoniums, handcrafted in the American colonies or brought from the old world.
The earliest organ recorded in the present church building, a purely mechanical, non-electric instrument, housed in the southern apse alcove now known as the Mary Chapel.
A new organ is built by the firm of Hilborne Lewis Roosevelt, cousin to United States Presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Roosevelt organ is rebuilt by the New York firm of George Jardine & Son.
The organ is moved from the chancel alcove to the rear choir loft. The gallery organ's decorated, non-speaking facade pipes seen today — preserving the Victorian Neo-Gothic style — are the original case pipes from this earlier instrument.
A new pipe organ, one of the first built after World War II, is installed by the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut. It contains 28 ranks, two keyboards, and a full pedal board, housed in a new choir loft in front of the grand arch of the west wall of the nave.
Herbert Brown of Austin Organs expands the instrument, adding a third keyboard — a choir division of 11 more ranks. The organ, now rising three stories high with walk-in universal wind chests for easy maintenance, has three keyboards and a full pedal board.
Planning begun in the early 1980s for the church's 300th anniversary comes to fruition as New York organ builder Sebastian Glück undertakes a tonal revision of the Austin organ toward a French sound — renaming the stops in French nomenclature, adding a Cavaillé-Coll type 5-rank mixture, and adding fire to the reeds. He also prepares the console for a future expansion from 43 to 82 ranks, should funding ever become available.
The organ is thoroughly cleaned after a boiler mishap.
Separate from the organ pipework but controlled from the organ area, the church tower houses a 10-bell chime, cast in 1923 by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, NY. The chimes are no longer rung.
More on the New York City Organ ProjectYour gift helps us maintain this historic 1693 parish, support our music program, and keep St. Peter's open and thriving for the community of Westchester Square.
You can also mail a check to P.O. Box 613, Bronx, NY 10461, or contact the parish office at stpetersbronx@gmail.com for other ways to give.
Beginning Sunday, September 7th — youth and adult singers are needed for new choirs forming at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
For Adults and Teens: come at 9:00 AM
For Youth Ages 9–12: come at 11:00 AM
Come to St. Peter's Church
2500 Westchester Avenue, Bronx NY
Near Westchester Square, Subway #6
Enter through the front doors of the church!
See you there!
St. Peter's Episcopal Church