"This church, like all our other churches, whatever their style, should possess more space than our great American cities permit. It should not be elbowed and jostled by great apartment houses, but should rise through the greenery of trees and flowers". (From “The Proposed New St. Bartholomew’s” by Bertram G. Goodhue, The Architect. January 16, 1915.)

Goodhue's successors were faithful to his vision of the new Church rising up among trees and flowers. The so-called “Great Terrace,” a prominent feature of the Park Avenue site, lies between the south side of the Church and the west facade of the Community House.  An expansive red tile and bluestone raised piazzetta, it doubles as the roof of the Community House athletic facilities, while in warm weather, it is an outdoor dining area for the popular restaurant Inside Park. The New York Landmarks Conservancy has celebrated the restaurant as the creative use of an historic urban space. Bluestone steps lead up to the Terrace are flanked by gardens, which date from 1927 and have been lovingly maintained by generations of volunteers.

On the north side of the Church there is also a small evergreen garden known as the “Cheatham Garden.” Designed by Landscape Architect Paschall Campbell (1930-2003) in collaboration with the architectural firm Hamby, Kennerly, Slomanson & Smith, it was given by Owen Robertson Cheatham in memory of his mother, Sallie Franklin Cheatham and completed in 1972. It consists of a series of evergreen planted platforms originally with water flowing through now gravel-filled channels, it surrounds the North Transept entrance to the Church, which Goodhue designed as a way for the aged and physically impaired to enter the building and access the Communion Rail without climbing a single stair.  

Today, the gardens provide an oasis of beauty and calm adjacent to heavily trafficked, pedestrian dense, Park Avenue.