Harlem's Crypt Chapel, part of the Church of the Intercession on West 155th Street. (Photo by Paul Smith)
A stone-carved broken hourglass looms above the wooden doors the Rev. José Gándara-Perea, known as Father Berto, unbolts. Wind sends leaves rustling down a flight of steps, into the abyss of Harlem’s Crypt Chapel. Chandeliers illuminate the ceiling’s brickwork in a dim glare. You expect bats, cobwebs and bubbling cauldrons.
The interior of the Crypt Chapel. (Photo by Paul Smith)
“It looks familiar,” whispers a member of Berto’s tour, interrupting an ominous silence.
“Nicolas Cage was in that closet,” replies Berto, Episcopalian minister of the Church of the Intercession, pointing to the boiler room. “Morgana the evil witch came flying down the staircase, and had Merlin killed right there.”
From Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” to “Dracula,” the Crypt Chapel has been host to some of Harlem’s most exotic blood spills. Its gothic architecture and convenient uptown parking access makes for a moviemaker’s dream location. It was the location for Run DMC’s “Down With The King” music video in 1993. Feist filmed a secret show here earlier this month, squeezing strings, brass, woodwind players and a gaggle of whooping fans into the 100-person-capacity space.
Chandeliers hang from the roof, casting a dark glow. (Photo by Paul Smith)
It wasn’t always so glamorous. Construction on the church’s third location on West 155th Street began in 1910 and finished four years later. Trinity Wall Street, an Episcopal church in Lower Manhattan that owned the parish until 1976, built the new church on the condition that it include a mortuary chapel. At the beginning of the 20th century, Harlem and Washington Heights’ influx of multistory buildings made transporting coffins up and down five floors difficult. Corpses were placed in the crypt overnight and buried in the cemetery the next morning.
Burial niches for cremated remains, dating back to 1920, occupy two walls. (Photo by Paul Smith)
In the 1920s, the church created burial niches for cremated remains. A series of wooden compartments still occupies two walls, the most recent addition from 2007.
Richard Freeman, who’s celebrating his 50th year as a member of the parish, remembers Sunday School Classes in the crypt in the ’60s, long after it was used as a morgue. “I feel proud that those folks come here,” Freeman says, speaking of its use as a Hollywood location over a worship place. “I have many letters from ‘Law and Order’ thanking us for letting them use it.”
The Church of the Intercession, now independent, is struggling. The collapsing tower roof needs repair and its small congregation is disproportionate to its sprawling building. “To sustain the place is a nightmare,” says Berto.
This Saturday, the church hosts a Halloween Party for children. (Photo by Paul Smith)
Now the Crypt supports the parish. The church splits the door charge with local jazz musicians at monthly sessions. This Saturday, the church is holding a childrens’ Halloween party there. But any opportune trick-or-treaters hoping for a creepy venue for Monday’s festivities should be warned: the Crypt and cemetery are locked at night.
More stories on Halloween uptown:
El Barrio Celebrates Día de los Muertos
Uptown Haunts: Ghost Stories of Inwood and Washington Heights
