Historic Edgehill Church Faces Urgent Repairs as Roof Deteriorates

Perched on a hillside above the Harlem River,  Edgehill Church endured over a century of storms. But time, water and long-deferred maintenance are beginning to outmatch the building’s resilience.

Now home to the Kingsbridge Historical Society (KHS), Edgehill Church, 2570 Independence Ave., faces intensifying structural challenges, including a faltering roof, and gutters that are long-warped and weathered.

During storms, rain leaks into the chapel through the roof and pools in the grass on the side of the building, where the slope of the hill traps it against the base. Water damage is visible in ceiling stains, and volunteers have resorted to shifting rain barrels, applying caulk and taping gutter joints in a race to protect the interior.

“Basically, the roof needs to go, it’s a giant expense,” said KHS President Nick Dembowski. “I’m here during rainstorms with an umbrella, trying to find all the cracks. Then we come back, we caulk it and keep going.”

Bronx Community Board 8 has twice urged the city to fund repairs, including in its Fiscal Year 2026 Capital Budget Request, where it listed a roof replacement for Edgehill among its top priorities­ — citing the building’s cultural significance and community role. 

Edgehill Church is a designated New York City Landmark and one of the last physical remnants of Spuyten Duyvil’s industrial past. Founded in 1868 as a mission chapel, it originally served workers of the nearby Johnson Iron Foundry, a major employer in the area. While the current structure replaced the smaller building, the community’s ties to the site endured.

The current church, completed in 1889 by architect Francis Kimball, blends Shingle Style, Romanesque, and Tudor Revival elements in a rare Bronx example of eclectic late 19th-century architectural design. Known more widely for designing some of Manhattan’s earliest skyscrapers, Kimball tailored Edgehill to its surroundings, creating an asymmetrical building that hugs the hillside’s contours.

“There’s a turret over there on the outside, but not like one over here,” Dembowski said. “It’s not built symmetrical — it’s built just for this spot.”

That topography now complicates the church’s survival. The steep slope behind the building traps stormwater runoff, especially as failing gutters spill water directly onto the foundation. Layers of moss and weathering shingles weigh down the roof. Volunteers removed overgrown trees to reduce shade and minimize moisture, but many of the wood elements have already begun to rot.

“There’s that wooden board [on the roof], and then above it there are these wooden shingles — probably the first roof this building had,” Dembowski said, pointing to the layered surface. “Then there’s a layer of asphalt shingles, then two more. We’re at the point that the architect told us, ‘You can’t put another roof on. You’re adding a lot of weight.’ It’s actually stressing the structure.”

The cost of fixing the roof, including removing old layers, structural carpentry, and installing new shingles, gutters, and paint, could reach $300,000. While a 2023 GoFundMe campaign raised just over $22,000, Dembowski said the historical society’s capacity to self-fund such a project is limited.

“The roof itself isn’t $300,000,” he said. “But when you add the scaffolding, the gutters, it adds up quickly. It’s an extremely high cost, beyond our fundraising capabilities — unless some miracle benefactor shows up.”

But, funding remains elusive, in part due to the structure’s complicated eligibility status.

A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) confirmed that while KHS received programming support through the city’s Equity Fund in Fiscal Year 2025, the organization did not submit a capital funding application for FY25 or FY26. 

Although the community board advocated for the roof overhaul, DCLA said the agency requires a formal application to begin evaluating the project — and even then, capital repair work may not qualify.

“Repairs are typically not eligible for city capital funding,” according to DCLA. “But in order to assess the project in depth, we would need to receive an application which would include extensive details on the organization and proposed project.”

However, the agency told The Press it encourages KHS to attend a DCLA capital funding information session for the next cycle.

Even if KHS submits a formal capital request, however, challenges remain. Many city grants are reimbursable, meaning the organization must front the funds for repairs and wait to be repaid. For an all-volunteer nonprofit like KHS, that can be a prohibitive barrier.

Rather than pausing programming to focus on repairs, KHS ramped up its public offerings to build community support and demonstrate its value to potential donors. 

“When we first got the building, we saw so many issues,” Dembowski said. “We decided we should go crazy with events and programming, build up a base of people that appreciate us and support us… and then you’ve sort of proven your worth before you start asking people for money.”

That base is growing — and so is the urgency. KHS has begun discussions with local elected officials, including State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who helped secure funding for a new HVAC system last year. 

Dembowski and a rotating team of volunteers continue to do what they can. They tape over leaks, move barrels, clean gutters and hold lectures. 

In the meantime, they are just hoping the next storm isn’t the one that finally breaks through.