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St. John the Baptist Church | |
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Location | Manayunk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Denomination | Catholic Church |
St. John the Baptist Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1831, it is the tenth oldest parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. [1] The current Neo Gothic church was dedicated on April 1, 1894 and is the spiritual home for Roman Catholics living in the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Manayunk, Roxborough, and Wissahickon. [1]
The prosperous mill town of Manayunk was the setting for a flood of Irish immigration in the early twentieth century. Lured by the promise of work and freedom in the dark days of the Irish Famine many moved to this location along the Schuylkill River and chose to make their home there. [2]
As the sixth oldest parish founded within the Philadelphia city limits, yet the first parish established outside of Center City, St. John the Baptist was the first location where Catholics who immigrated to the region in the mid-nineteenth century could worship. Jerome Keating [3] was a wealthy mill owner who came to Manayunk with his wife Eulalia, and took up residence in what later became a convent on Cresson Street. The first Catholic Mass in the area was held in the winter of 1829-1830 in the Keatings’ home. Each week, the Keatings would invite a priest to visit and celebrate mass with local Catholics. Eulalia Keating was said to have held a weekly Sunday school for a dozen or so neighboring children. Eventually, when about 20 families or 100 people were celebrating mass at the Keatings’ home, Jerome Keating proposed founding a parish. To that end he made a gift of the ground bordering his home for the construction of a church and an adjoining cemetery. The cornerstone for Saint John’s first Church was laid into place on May 10, 1830 at the site where the upper school stands today. The parish was officially established on April 4, 1831.
With a growing population of the small manufacturing town, the first church of Saint John the Baptist Manayunk became too small. In 188 Bernard McCane bequeathed $100,000 to “Erect and build a church where Saint John the Baptist Church now stands on Rector Street, and to buy and have cast a bell.” [4] The cornerstone for the current church was laid on the northwest corner of the property on September 13, 1886. The church was built at a total cost of $250,000, financed with the help of the local community. [5]
In 2012, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia consolidated St. John the Baptist Parish with St. Mary of the Assumption and St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. The St. Josaphat Church property (1898, Cotton Street) is used and maintained as a worship site for the parish, while the St. Mary of the Assumption Church property (1848, Connaroe Street) was sold. The St. Mary church stands although it no longer functions as a worship site. The St. Mary of the Assumption Cemetery on Cinnaminson Street in Roxborough is maintained by the parish. [6]
The present church was completed in 1894, with the ensuing clock and bell tower completed in 1906. The church was designed by famed New York architect Patrick Keely and towers over the rowhouses of Manayunk. a) [5]
Much of the church interior was completed in the early 1900s Many of the sculptures and the Stations of the Cross were crafted by the eminent New York ecclesiastical sculptor Joseph Sibbel, who is said to have worked often with Patrick Keely. [5]
The organ is a 1906 Austin. [5]
In 2015, the parish undertook a $1 million capital campaign to restore the tower and roof of the church. [7]
The parish cemetery contains several interments the earliest being in 1829. Numerous Civil War veterans are buried here including Medal of Honor recipient Peter McAdams. Purportedly, the cemetery contains the largest collection of Civil War veterans of any small cemetery in the nation.
The Archdiocese of New York is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City and the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester to the north of the city. It does not include the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn or Queens, which are part of the Diocese of Brooklyn; however, the Diocese of Brooklyn is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of New York.
Roxborough is a neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to the southeast by the neighborhood of East Falls. Beyond Roxborough to the northwest is Montgomery County. Roxborough's ZIP Code is 19128. Most of Roxborough is in Philadelphia's 21st Ward.
Manayunk is a neighborhood in the section of Lower Northwest Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Located adjacent to the neighborhoods of Roxborough and Wissahickon and also on the banks of the Schuylkill River, Manayunk contains the first canal begun in the United States.
East Falls is a neighborhood in Lower Northwest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies on the east bank of the "Falls of the Schuylkill," cataracts submerged in 1822 by the Schuylkill Canal and Fairmount Water Works projects. East Falls sits next to the Germantown, Roxborough, Allegheny West, and the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhoods. Wissahickon Valley Park separates it from Manayunk, Philadelphia.
The Archdiocese of Newark is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
Andorra is a neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia, which is a section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Andorra is a part of Roxborough, being within the borders of the original Roxborough Township and having the same zip code (19128). At some point during the 19th or 20th century, Andorra developed a cultural identity as a neighborhood within Roxborough. Andorra was named "Andorra" after a fancied resemblance to the small country of the same name which sits astride the Pyrenees between France and Spain.
Saint Mary of the Angels is a historic church of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.
St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church located at 715 East Canfield Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1985. Since 2013, it has been one of two churches that comprise Mother of Divine Mercy Parish.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, also known as Old St. Mary's, is a historic church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Society Hill neighborhood at 248 S. Fourth Street between Spruce and Walnut Streets.
The Old Church of St. Peter is a Roman Catholic church established under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York in 1837. It is the second oldest Catholic Church on the Hudson and is considered the Mother Church of the Hudson Valley because from it all the parishes in Ulster and Dutchess counties were founded. The church is also referred to as Our Lady of Mount Carmel since 1965 when St. Peter's parish relocated to Hyde Park, New York and the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel church relocated to site.
St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia is located in the Manayunk section of Northwest Philadelphia at 124 Cotton Street. This parish was merged with those of St. John the Baptist and St. Mary of the Assumption in 2012.
St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church is an active parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia located at Second and Jefferson Streets in Philadelphia, in the West Kensington section of the city.
The Church of St. Alban, Roxborough is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1859 as a chapel of ease of St. David's Episcopal Church in Manayunk, initially with a dedication to St. Peter. The cornerstone for the church building was laid on September 15, 1860, and the church was consecrated by Bishop William Bacon Stevens on January 14, 1862, as his first official episcopal act, having himself been consecrated to the episcopate six days earlier. Its architect was Alfred Byles, who also designed the Fifth Baptist Church at the corner of Eighteenth and Spring Garden in Philadelphia.
St. Timothy's Church, Roxborough is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Wissahickon Deanery of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. In 1962, St. Timothy's reported membership of 1,144 and weekly attendance of 849, while its 2022 reported attendance was 32 persons.
St. David's Episcopal Church is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Wissahickon Deanery of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. In 1960, the parish reported 621 members; it reported 23 members in 2022. English-born mill-workers were heavily represented in its early population, while mill owners were successive wardens, vestrymen, and treasurers.
Lyons, Reverend James A., Pastor (2006) Saint John the Baptist 175th Anniversary. Cooke publishing company, Warminster, Pennsylvania.