Riverside Drive @ 123rd Street
Architect: Henry Pelton and Allen & Collens
Date Constructed: 1930
Interdenominational

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed this church when he decided that the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine was being built to slowly for his taste. Unlike St. John’s, which is built entirely of stone in the genuine Gothic mode, Riverside Church was built with a structural steel frame covered by a decorative Gothic–style stone cladding, which allowed it to be completed much more quickly. The majestic tower houses the world’s largest carillon with a total of 74 bells. The Bourdon (hour–bell) in this carillon was the heaviest and largest carillon bell ever cast. The church is famous for its social progressivism and has often functioned as a center for social and political activism.