Our History

The first congregation, which later became the parish of St. George's, met in the private homes of families living in the area of Hallet's Cove beginning about 1800. This community was served by the Rector of St. James', Newtown (now called Elmhurst). Mr. Samuel Blackwell, one of those early worshippers, donated a plot of land on Newtown Road, now Astoria Boulevard, and money was raised in 1827 among the residents of the area, including the Blackwells, Whittemores, Suydams, Rhinelanders, Gibbses, and the Astors.

The church was erected in 1828 and incorporated a few years later in 1835. The son of the first bishop of the Episcopal Church, The Rev. Samuel Seabury, assisted in those early days, until the Rev. J.W. Brown was called as Rector in 1840. The old church building, which was on the site of what is now the Astoria Branch of the Queens Public Library on Astoria Boulevard, burned in 1894. Thus services were held in the Parish Hall, which became the Rectory, until the present church was constructed under the leadership of the Rev. Herman Lillenthal Lonsdale.

​The architeects George Vattrese & Son were contracted in 1903 to build an early English Gothic church of stone. The builders, Goble Brothers of Philadelphia, used stone from the blasting for the foundation of the Queensborough (Ed Koch) Bridge. The open lumber roof and clerestory gave the church a lofty aspect, and yet the total cost was kept within the budget of $20,000.

​The building was occupied on February 7, 1904, and the church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Frederick Burgess, Bishop of Long Island, on April 30, 1904. He complimented the congregation on having a "simple and dignified" church.

The cemetery dates back to the 1800s and many of the prominent residents of Astoria are buried there. The memorial cemetery gates were installed in 1924 and now lead to parking and service access for the apartment building.

Between 1933 and 1941, a stone altar replaced the wooden table in the sanctuary. Between 1941 and 1950, the stone reredos was designed and completed by architect and parishioner, George Clark.

In 2005, the parish participated in a building project in which the rectory and parish house was demolished to make room for the Hallets Cove Apartments. The apartment building is a ministry project of the church which now occupies a significant portion of the grounds.