Saint Thomas Church was incorporated as an Episcopal parish on January 9, 1824, an intentional merger of three separate parishes agreed upon months earlier. Its first edifice, located at the southeastern end of Greenwich Village, was completed in 1826, later suffering a fire on March 2, 1851 and subsequently being rebuilt the following year on the same site. With the character of the neighborhood coarsening over time, the parish eventually sought and acquired a new property further uptown for its third edifice, which was completed in 1870. Yet another fire destroyed all but its Tower in 1905, resulting in the fourth, current edifice constructed on the same property and consecrated on April 25, 1916.