Georgia Delano
Best known for her advocacy in the St. Mark’s Historic District, Delano was integral to the preservation of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery especially the Historic Ernest Flagg Rectory.
Georgia Delano was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1926.[1] A graduate of Wheaton College in 1946, Georgia excelled academically and joined the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society.[2] In the 1970s Delano and her family moved to a townhouse on East Tenth Street in the St. Mark’s Historic District.[3] There, Delano and her husband Bill spent nearly every Saturday cleaning the street and a small park in front of St. Mark’s Church In-The-Bowery.[4] The church would function as the locus of her lifelong preservation efforts. Georgia Delano passed away in 2012.[5]
Trustee: LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust
Trustee: St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund
Founder: Friends of St. Marks
Delano’s preservation efforts centered around her advocacy and support of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. 9 Delano and her husband worked to engage their neighbors in support of the Preservation Youth Project. 10 This organization originally worked to reclaim the historic burial sites surrounding the church. 11 In 1975, Delano founded Friends of St. Mark’s to further help support the Preservation Youth Project. 12 This allowed Preservation Youth Project to tackle more extensive church restorations such as the repair of the church’s 19th century cast iron fence as well as its steeple. 13 In 1978, a fire devastated this and other restoration efforts. 14 As a result, Friends of St. Mark’s evolved into Citizens to Save St. Mark’s. Delano served as a chair and worked to raise funds. 15 She was integral in connecting LuEsther T. Mertz to the project and Mertz’s generous gift to the church helped launch the St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund. 16 Delano was an active trustee of the fund until her death.
In 1988, fire struck again badly damaging the Church’s rectory, designed by Ernst Flagg in 1901. 17 The two organizations Delano so actively supported came to the church’s rescue – Preservation Youth Project tackling the exterior and St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund the interior. One of the last projects undertaken by the St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund was the restoration of Church’s steeple clockworks. A plaque honoring Delano was added in 2019 with her last words, “There is still time for a kiss.” 18
[1] Laura Delano, email message to researcher, 26 October 2021; and Vanessa Llana, email message to researcher, 21 October 2021.
[2] Laura Delano, email message to researcher, 26 October 2021.
[3] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[4] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[5] “Paid Notice: Deaths; DELANO, GEORGIA,” New York Times online, Published 18 April 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9D0DEFDD1F3AF93BA25757C0A9649D8B63.html.
[6] “Paid Notice: Deaths; DELANO, GEORGIA,” New York Times online, Published 18 April 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9D0DEFDD1F3AF93BA25757C0A9649D8B63.html.
[7] “Paid Notice: Deaths; DELANO, GEORGIA,” New York Times online, Published 18 April 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-9D0DEFDD1F3AF93BA25757C0A9649D8B63.html.
[8] “History,” St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, accessed 30 September 2021, https://stmarksbowery.org/history.
[9] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[10] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[11] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[12] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[13] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[14] “History,” St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, accessed 30 September 2021, https://stmarksbowery.org/history; and Laura Delano, email message to researcher, 29 October 2021.
[15] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
[16] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021; and Laura Delano, email message to researcher, 29 October 2021.
[17] “POSTINGS: Renovating the Rectory of St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery; Home for a Rector, and More,” New York Times online, 8 March 1998, https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/08/realestate/postings-renovating-rectory-st-mark-s-bowery-home-for-rector-more.html.
[18] Stephen Facey, email message to researcher, 16 November 2021.
