The church was built from sandstone from Nova Scotia in 1870 to a design by the architectural firm of Hubert & Pirsson. Architectural historian and New York Times journalist Christopher Gray wrote that "The Gothic-style building has the air of a picturesque English country church, with a plot of green in front and a square tower rising in front of the sanctuary. According to Andrew S. Dolkart, an architectural historian specializing in church design, the building is closely modeled after Edward Buckton Lamb's Church of St. Martin's, Gospel Oak, London (see Gospel Oak), built in 1865. 'It has almost every little quirky detail of the London church,' says Mr. Dolkart. 'The chamfered corners, the varying planes of the façade, the asymmetrical pinnacle at the top of the tower. It really captures your attention.'"[1]
Attached to the complex are a single-cell chapel (1879), and a rectory and a parish house (1880 and 1893). The larger Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, on Fifth Avenue and 45th Street, relocated to 2 East 90th Street, forcing Beloved Disciple to merge with it (its name retained in a chapel). The old church was sold in 1929 to wealthy Dutch Reformed congregants from Harlem who formed the Second Collegiate Church of Harlem. In 1950 they sold the church to the Roman Catholic Church, who rededicated it to St. Thomas More.[1]
The church was renovated in the later half of the 20th century by architect Paul C. Reilly.[2]
Notable parishioners
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a parishioner there until her death, and she had a Mass offered for John F. Kennedy every November 22 on the anniversary of his death, a tradition later maintained by her daughter Caroline. Her 1994 funeral was held at the nearby St. Ignatius of Loyola because of the number of attendees.
Fashion and street photographer Bill Cunningham was also a regular parishioner and a private Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of his soul by Fr Kevin Madigan on June 30, 2016.[5]
