The main square, three-story building was built in 1893, in the Neo-Renaissance style, and enlarged with an addition, called Douglas Hall in 1911, attached in the rear. The porch was also attached on the south facade in 1911. Constructed over a brick foundation with solid brick railings and Medina sanstone trim. It has a flat roof supported by wooden Tuscan columns and two engaged pilasters. The porch entablature is embellished with small dentils.
The Nazareth House was used for offices and church and community programs on the ground and first floors and for living space on th third floor. The basement contained a bowling alley and storage area. The north side of the ground floor contains a main room 23x24 feet, which is two stories high, and a 12x24 room. The south side has two small rooms in the southwest corner, and a 9x15 foot office. The second floor is an L-shaped balcony area.
Douglas Hall contained a kitchen, dining room, locker rooms in the basement and a gymnasium/auditorium and stage on the ground level. The stage at the east end has an elliptical ceiling. Much of the original woodwork on the interior is intact, The chestnut cabiniets and kitchen counter in the basement and the chestnut mmoulding bordiring the stage area in the auditorium are all noteworthy.
These unique building features served the innovative social and educational programs which had an impact well beyond the church's membership. This is a five-bay three-story red brick main block in bearing wall construction, in alternating rows of raised brickwork simulating quoins. The addition is in the same style and constructed in the same material. "The main block ha a hip roof and wide projedcting eaves supported by wooden brackets. Its wooden cornice is rich with Neo-Classical details. There is an architrave band of wooden dentils and egg and dart moulding beginning in the area above the third story windows." (
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The nomination form provides us some information about the development of the South Wedge:
"Lyman Munger came from Connecticut in 1817 and settled east of the Genesee River near the present Mt. Hope Avenue. He gradually divided his farm into building tracts and streets of homes formed east to west. There was some industry: mills, a tannery and a boat building business, and later, South, Clinton and Mt. Hope Avenues developed into major commercial streets. The South Wedge experienced some change in the twentieth century as houses were divided and property rentals increased. A large percentage of the dwellings, however, remained owner-occupied.
"Reverend Algernon S. Crapsey, Assistant Rector of Trinity Church in New York, came to Rochester to head the St. Andrew's parish in June 1879. He built up the fledgling church into a major force in the community. Reverend Crapsey was a forward thinker, an able administrator and a powerful influence in the shaping of social awareness both locally and on a national scale. The programs he created during his 27 years as pastor of the church set a precedent for institutional work. Like many urban churches, the desire to address the needs of the rapidly expanding immigrant community manifested itself in buildings and programs which often made parish churches that most important educational and social service institutions in the community. Under Reverend Crapsey's leadership, the church became a less exclusive, more responsive institution which set an examp;le for other churches across the country.
"For this reason, programs at Nazareth House were educational rather than religious in emphasis. Religious instruction and church services occurred in the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and rectory across the street, while activities at Nazareth House were structured to address the educational and social needs of the entire community, regardless of religious affiliation.
"Reverend Crapsey established the School of Practical Knowledge and Recreation, the first formal training program for Kindergarten teachers in Rochester. He enthusiastically supported the building of Nazareth House to provide room for additional educational training and charitable programs. A trade school with 500 teachers and students enrolled was operating out of Nazareth House in 1895.
"The space at Nazareth House was enlarged with an addition to the north end of the building, Douglas Hall, in 1911. It housed as auditorium, kitchen and dining room. Since 1893 the church offered social and educational services to the entire Rochester community. During the 1960's it was used for a nursery school, music rehearsals, a "Lighted Schoolhouse" program and a youth program. It closed and then reopend in 1976 as the South-East Community Center. It is now privately owned and rehabilitated, its interior spaces having been converted into six apartments." (
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