Church of the Guardian Angel, 1931.

The Southern Sicilian Romanesque church is the third Church of the Guardian Angel. The first two, built in 1888 and 1910 were located on West 23rd Street. In 1929, in order to eliminate the dangerous grade-level railway on “Death Avenue,” as Tenth Avenue was then nicknamed, the New York Central Railroad began work on the elevated West Side Line. The proposed right of way for the project included the Church of the Guardian Angel, which was relocated to a new building at Tenth Avenue and West 21st Street. Train traffic continued on Tenth Avenue until the new elevated line, itself feet from the new church’s rear wall, was completed in 1934.