Getting to Church Without a Car in New York City: 419 Congregations Near Mapped Transit Stops

New York City has 419 churches with at least one mapped transit stop within a quarter mile, which is 94.2 percent of the 445 congregations on the directory's New York City page, the highest coverage rate of any city in this series except San Francisco. In a city where most households do not own a car, the subway and bus grid is simply how people get to church.

Catholic parishes lead the transit-reachable count at 99, followed by Baptist congregations at 79 and Non-Denominational churches at 66. The best-connected building in the data is Saint Andrews Catholic Church near Broadway and Warren Street by City Hall, with 46 mapped stops within a quarter mile. A second cluster sits at the other end of Manhattan: Church of the Incarnation, First Spanish Baptist Church, and Holyrood Church each count 42 stops around Saint Nicholas Avenue and West 178th Street in Washington Heights, beside the George Washington Bridge bus terminal.

Which New York City churches sit closest to transit?

The table lists the 60 New York City congregations with the most mapped stops within a quarter mile, of 419 total with at least one. Stop names come from OpenStreetMap; sort by any column.

The transit-reachable New York City churches on the map

Riding to church in New York City: what to check before Sunday

New York transit access is rarely the question; the right door is. Three checks before a Sunday visit:

• Check weekend subway changes. The stop counts above are structural, but MTA weekend service changes reroute lines regularly; verify the specific line the night before.
• Note that high stop counts mark terminals. The Washington Heights churches count 42 stops because of the bridge bus terminal next door; the subway station that actually serves the church door may be a single entrance a block away.
• Confirm mass and service schedules. Many Manhattan parishes run multiple Sunday masses including evening services, which makes nearly any transit schedule workable.

How the transit data was mapped

Stop locations come from OpenStreetMap, collected by the directory's nightly enrichment pass: every stop node within roughly 400 meters (a quarter mile) of a church building counts as a mapped stop. 419 of 445 New York City listings have at least one as of June 11, 2026. A mapped stop does not guarantee Sunday service on that route; check the transit agency's schedule before traveling. Corrections to any listing go through the corrections page.

Related reading in The Letter: New York's 754 Episcopal parishes maps the state's establishment tradition, and New York's 306 register-listed churches documents the largest historic church stock of any state in this series. Philadelphia's transit list continues the series down the Northeast Corridor. The New York City page lists all 445 congregations.