The original St. George's was a chapel built in 1752 by Trinity Church on Chapel Street (now Beekman Street) in Lower Manhattan, for the convenience of its congregants who lived on the east side of the city. That building had a columned portico, arched windows and a hexagonal steeple. In 1811 the congregation became independent, and in 1846-1856 they built a new church uptown, on very fashionable Stuyvesant Square.
The architects of the new church were Charles Otto Blesch and Leopold Eidlitz. The exterior design, attributed to Blesch, was influenced by the Rundbogenstil (round-arch style) Ludwigskirche in Munich and the plain hall churches of Germany. Eidlitz designed the interior spaces. He also designed the rectory, also known as the Henry Hill Pierce House, which was built in the early 1850s. The spires on each tower of the church were completed almost a decade after the remainder of the building.
The church was gutted by fire in 1865, and was rebuilt within the next two years. In 1889, more than twenty years after the church had been rebuilt, the spires on the two towers were removed.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.