Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is still a Roman Catholic church in Altadena, with a model of the grotto at Lourdes.

As Sarah A. Leavitt writes in her new book on the hospital: “In a coincidental connection to the land’s later service to the mentally ill, the area was named in the 1660s after Elizabeth of Hungary, a 13th-century Roman Catholic saint who was canonized for her devotion to the poor and sick. The land changed hands many times, but the original name — inconsistently spelled — stayed connected to the site.”

Parishioners have appealed the deconsecration of at least two churches: St. Elizabeth of Hungary on the Upper East Side and All Saints Church in Harlem.

Kal Chany, who was a trustee of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and also appealed on its behalf, questioned whether his church and others on Manhattan’s East Side had been closed because of their increased real estate value.

Mr. Chany said a real estate firm, Brown Harris Stevens, had “conservatively valued” St. Elizabeth of Hungary — on 83rd Street between Second and Third Avenues, blocks away from the 86th Street station — at $25 million.