WILLIAMSBURG — The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted on Tuesday to landmark a historic Neoclassical building at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Completed in 1906 and first up for consideration as a city landmark in 1966, The Williamsburgh Trust Company building at 177 South 5th St., was approved by the LPC, but needs the city council's final stamp of approval before the landmark designation is official.
While the bank-turned-church's Pantheon-like structure earned support of the Municipal Arts Society, the building's current owner, the Ukrainian Church in Exile, vehemently opposed the landmark designation over the years, according to the city's decades-old file.
Parishioners, who have maintained the building since the 1960s, are worried that the burden of the landmark designation would be a financial hardship and could end up costing them the building.
While a Community Board subcommittee had first sided with the church, the full board later voted to support a landmark designation without the church's support, though the community board's role is only advisory.
A church representative couldn't immediately be reached for follow up comment.
The structure was first built as a bank, but it only served that function for four years before the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1907 lead to its closure in 1910, according to the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.
From 1916 to 1958 the building was used as a Brooklyn Magistrate Court.
Three years after the court closed, the Ukrainian congregation moved into the building, in part lured by its architectural similarities to Orthodox churches with a cross-shaped structure and central dome, according to the LPC.
City Councilman Antonio Reynoso has expressed support for the landmark status.
