Historic First Presbyterian Church in Glen Cove, built in 1906, awarded landmark status
The First Presbyterian Church, located on North Lane in Glen Cove, is seen on Friday. The Glen Cove City Council voted to landmark the church, built in 1906. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
The City of Glen Cove has designated a 120-year-old church with historic landmark status, shielding the Tudor-style building from development.
First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1869 and moved into the property in 1906. The structure on North Lane, with its gable roofs and timbered exterior, looks largely the same as it did more than a century ago. It has served as a community centerpiece in the North Shore city for years, officials said, but was still vulnerable to alterations after a previously-awarded protective status expired decades ago.
The Glen Cove City Council unanimously approved a request to landmark the exterior of the building.
“It’s a long time coming,” said Dave Nieri, the city’s historian and a member of the Landmark Preservation Commission. “It’s been considered for a landmark for at least two decades.”
The structure on a hill at the edge of the city’s downtown features a unique architectural style that makes it a recognizable monument.
“I always maintain that if you put up a picture of the First Presbyterian Church on Facebook, people who never even lived here but passed through here, they’d say, ‘Oh, I know where that is’,” Nieri said.
For years, the church was a home for multiple congregations and also a homeless shelter managed by the nonprofit North Shore Sheltering Program. The church began being used as a shelter in 1997, but the group decided to permanently close the shelter in 2024. The First Presbyterian Church held its final service on Jan. 11, 2025. While the building changed hands over the decades, preservation officials said the structure remained largely unchanged.
“It’s almost identical to how it was originally constructed, both the interior and exterior of the building,” said Robert Labaw, chairman of the Glen Cove Landmark Preservation Commission.
While the building was granted protected status years ago, Labaw said that designation was only intended to last for six months. The church, had it been sold without a landmark designation, "could have conceptually been demolished," he said.
The new status, however, requires approval for changes to the exterior, he said.
"This building is truly unique," Labaw said. "When we found out that the church was going to go up for sale, the Landmarks Commission started to investigate with a little more urgency."
Harriet Gerard Clark, executive director of Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay, said important structures, regardless of whether they are officially recognized, "represent the memory and soul of a place."
"When landmarks are demolished, part of the memory and soul of that place is erased, as has so often happened on Long Island," Gerard Clark said in a statement, praising the decision to protect the property. "There could be no better sign of optimism for the future of the community.”
The property was bought earlier this year by Iglesia Apostoles Y Profetas Emanuel Efesios 2:20, a majority-Hispanic congregation that has rented the church for decades, according to officials and city documents.
Glen Cove is about one-third Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The figure has increased in recent years.
Preservation officials said the new owners supported the push to landmark the church's exterior.
A representative of the congregation could not immediately be reached for comment.
Glen Cove Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said her ancestors helped build the original church. She said the former owners of the property battled financial struggles and a dwindling congregation, which led to the sale.
“It really is beautiful,” Panzenbeck said of the church. “We need to preserve those buildings.”
Landmark status
The Glen Cove City Council unanimously approved a request to landmark First Presbyterian Church, a 120-year-old Tudor-style structure.
The structure on North Lane, with its gable roofs and timbered exterior, looks largely the same as it did more than a century ago, officials said.
Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the city of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance.
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