St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 1931.

The parish of St. Mary's dates to the early 19th century when Manhattanville was its own town. Organized in 1823, the first church building, a simple wood-frame chapel with a short steeple, was constructed in 1824-1826. It was once described, "St. Mary's was white and severely plain on the outside and square and bare within." In 1831 this parish became New York's first Episcopal church to abolish pew rentals, a practice of raising funds that often created a hierarchy among the community.

The first structure survived until the turn of the century, but then succumbed to the oft destroyer of wood-frame buildings: fire. A new neo-Gothic church was constructed in 1908-1909 by Theodore E. Blake, in association with Carrère & Hastings. The simple church with herringbone brickwork trimmed with concrete, was a sort of departure for all architects involved. Blake worked more commonly on homes, especially later as a individual architect, while Carrère & Hastings (Blake was long Hastings' assistant) were usually involved in much more ornate structures.