Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Forest Hills

As Forest Hills residents, we have a soft spot for Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. The impressive complex is a mainstay of the area, and despite its rather intense Gothic Revival attributes, brings peace to an otherwise hectic thoroughfare.

The current church was formally dedicated in 1940, but began to be operational the prior year. While the style is intended to reminisce beautiful Durham Cathedral, the effect is rather different. Not only is that cathedral in Norman-Romanesque style, OLQM is in Gothic Revival, in very clear stone. One can see similarities in the belfry, however.

The site was occupied by a small chapel with the same name of the parish. That chapel, like many other churches we run into, burned down, giving way a decade later to this large building and complex.

The raredos

By the main altar, there are 16 statuettes in the altarpiece, built by Frederick de Henwood. Along with the nave, the interior has quite a 20th-century warm touch, contrasting with the severe Gothic of the outside.