Fotografiska New York

You are approaching a building that has held many identities, most recently as the New York home for the international photography institution known as Fotografiska. Before it became a gallery for contemporary images, this six-story landmark at 281 Park Avenue South was constructed in 1894 as the Church Missions House. It served as the central administrative hub for the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Wealthy donors of the Gilded Age, including Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan, provided the funding for its construction. They envisioned it as a monumental headquarters that would consolidate the church’s far-flung missionary efforts into a single, imposing location.