St. Paul the Apostle Church (Manhattan)

Last updated

Saint Paul the Apostle Church
2014 St. Paul the Apostle Church 8-10 Columbus Avenue.jpg
October 2014
USA New York City location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Saint Paul the Apostle Church
40°46′11″N73°59′7″W / 40.76972°N 73.98528°W / 40.76972; -73.98528
Location8-10 Columbus Avenue
Manhattan, New York City), New York
Country United States
Denomination Roman Catholic
Religious order Paulist Fathers
Website stpaultheapostle.org
History
Status Parish church
Mother church of the Paulist Fathers
Founded1858 (parish)
1859 (original church & rectory)
1876 (current church)
DedicatedJanuary 25, 1885
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Heritage designation NRHP
NYC Landmark
Years built1876–1884 [1]
Administration
Archdiocese New York
Clergy
Pastor(s) Fr. Eric Andrews, CSP
Church of St. Paul the Apostle
Architect Jeremiah O'Rourke and George Deshon [2]
Architectural style Late Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No. 91001723
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 5, 1991 [3]
Designated NYCLJune 25, 2013

The Church of St. Paul the Apostle is a Catholic church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. [4] It is the mother church of the Paulist Fathers, the first religious community of Catholic priests founded in the United States.

Contents

History and architecture

The parish was founded in 1858, and their original church was a simple brick structure built on part of the current lot, but the congregation soon outgrew it. [5] [6]

A new Late Victorian Gothic Revival-style church was built between 1876 and 1884 designed by Jeremiah O'Rourke and Paulist priest George Deshon, a military engineer trained at West Point, [6] who took over the project six years into construction when O'Rourke died, [5] and probably simplified the design. [6] Isaac Hecker, who founded the Paulist Fathers, may have had a hand in its design as well, using the thirteenth-century Cathedral of Santa Croce, Florence as a model. [7] The building utilized Tarrytown gray granite stones salvaged from the Croton Aqueduct [5] along with stones from other structures in Manhattan. [6] The granite for the stone entrance steps was salvaged from the French Second Empire-style Booth's Theatre on Sixth Avenue at 23rd Street.

The new building was dedicated on January 25, 1885, [7] [8] but was still not complete at that time: the 114-foot (35 m) towers [9] had yet to reach their final height, and much of the interior declarations were still to be installed. [6]

The church is known for its ecclesiastical art, [9] and contains interior elements designed between 1887 and 1890 by Stanford White and many large decorated side chapels. Later stained glass windows were added by John LaFarge. [7] Other artists who worked within include Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Frederick MacMonnies, and Bertram Goodhue, who is responsible for the floor mosaics. White and Goodhue also offered advice on design elements. Lumen Martin Winter's Angel of the Resurrection adorns Hecker's sarcophagus, located in the northeast corner of the nave. [5] [10] Other Paulist Fathers are entombed in crypt off a chapel on the lower level of the church.

The New York Daily Tribune reviewed the architecture as "vast, plain, fortress-like in its solidity—almost repelling in the aesthetic cast without and within, yet it is the most August, unworldly interior of this continent." [7]

The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and designated a New York City Landmark in 2013. [6] A major renovation and restoration of the church was begun around 2000, and as of 2013 is still underway. [6]

Parish

In 1858, the Paulist Fathers first took possession of a frame house containing a small chapel at 14 West 60th Street. [11] The community's motherhouse is on West 59th Street, adjacent to the church. The present building dates from the 1930s.

The life of the parish has mirrored the growth, decline and rebirth of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. In 1903 the 9th Avenue elevated train ran directly in front of the church. In 1925, the Paulists launched radio station WLWL that operated from 1925 to 1937. The parish opened an elementary school in 1886 and a high school division in 1922. When financial issues forced the Archdiocese of New York to close the school, St. Paul's established pre-school centers funded by Project Head Start under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, providing students with free lunches and medical and dental care. [12] The parish's last school closed in 1974.

The parish went through a financially difficult period in the 1960s and 1970s, with the possibility of bankruptcy in 1973, and razing the church for an apartment building was briefly considered. The church sold the western part of their lot in the mid-1980s, [6] and was able to build a new Parish Center at 405 West 59th Street by selling its air rights to enable the building of a 40-story apartment tower, which sits close to the church's south tower. [5]

Today, the parish, with five Masses each Sunday, has a large young professionals community and a Spanish-speaking community. "Apostolist" is the Young Adult Program at St. Paul's; the Young Adult Choir sings at the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday. [13] The Youth Ministry also sponsors a Food Bank Pantry. "Out at St Paul (OSP)" is the LGBTQ+ ministry of the parish. [14] The "Mustard Seed Guild" supports orphanages in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. [15] The parish also has an active conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.

St. Paul's also hosts a bookstore and gift shop at the east end of the nave. [16] St. Paul the Apostle serves as the parish for Catholic students at nearby Fordham University, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the Juilliard School.

The large church basement has been used as a cafeteria for the parish school, a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, rehearsal space for The Rockettes, and for boxing matches. From 1996 to 2003, it was the home of the multi-annual Big Apple Comic Convention. [17]

Möller pipe organ

M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company's Opus 9987, built in 1965. Opus 9987 - M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company (1965).jpg
M.P. Möller Pipe Organ Company's Opus 9987, built in 1965.

The current organ at The Church of St. Paul the Apostle is M.P. Möller Pipe Organ Company's Opus 9987, built in 1965. With 4,965 pipes, the instrument has 4 manuals (keyboards), 83 ranks, and 78 stops. [18] Twelve of the stops are made up of pipework from the church's previous instrument, E.M. Skinner Opus 544, built in 1925. [19] The organ speaks from two different parts of the room, giving the effect of two instruments in one. At the front of the sanctuary, with large pedal towers that surround the high altar, sits the main organ. Perched on the south wall of the sanctuary is the nave organ. Both organs are playable simultaneously from one French-style console, built by the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company in 2000, which rests on a movable platform. [20] Renowned organist Virgil Fox recorded The Christmas Album on the Möller Organ in 1965. [21] By 2020 the Möller instrument was in need of restoration. [22] In February 2021 the church acquired the historic Roosevelt Organ Works Opus 525 that had previously been installed at the former All Saints Church. [23] [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in New York City

Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, the parish was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation's fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914. In 2021, it reported 2,852 members, average in-person attendance of 224 and $1,152,588 in plate and pledge income.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Patrick's Old Cathedral</span> Catholic parish church in Manhattan, New York

The Basilica of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral, sometimes shortened to St. Patrick's Old Cathedral or simply Old St. Patrick's, is a Catholic parish church, a basilica, and the former cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York, located in the Nolita neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built between 1809 and 1815 and designed by Joseph-François Mangin in the Gothic Revival style, it was the seat of the archdiocese until the current St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan opened in 1879. Currently, liturgies are celebrated in English, Spanish, and Chinese. The church is at 260–264 Mulberry Street between Prince and Houston streets, with the primary entrance on Mott Street. Old St. Patrick parish merged with Most Precious Blood parish, and the two churches share priests and administrative staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Laurel Harris</span> American painter

William Laurel Harris was an American muralist, educator, editor, and arts organizer.

Mathias Peter Møller, commonly known as M.P. Möller or Moeller, was a prolific pipe-organ builder and businessman. A native of the Danish island of Bornholm, he emigrated to the United States in 1872 and founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The city of Hagerstown, Maryland, took notice of Möller's early successes and induced him to move his business there in 1881 to help make it a viable business center in Western Maryland. The company remained in business in Hagerstown until 1992, with hundreds of employees at its peak and a lifetime production of over 12,000 instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)</span> United States historic place

St. Bartholomew's Church, commonly called St. Bart's, is a historic Episcopal parish founded in January 1835, and located on the east side of Park Avenue between 50th and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, in New York City. In 2018, the church celebrated the centennial of its first service in its Park Avenue home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulist Fathers</span> Roman Catholic evangelical society

The Paulist Fathers, officially named the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, abbreviated CSP, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men founded in New York City in 1858 by Isaac Hecker in collaboration with George Deshon, Augustine Hewit, and Francis A. Baker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Michael's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

St. Michael's Church is a historic Episcopal church at 225 West 99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. The parish was founded on the present site in January 1807, at that time in the rural Bloomingdale District. The present limestone Romanesque building, the third on the site, was built in 1890–91 to designs by Robert W. Gibson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Manhattan)</span> United States historic place

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is an Episcopal Anglo-Catholic church in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of New York of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The church complex is located in the heart of Times Square at 133-145 West 46th Street, with other buildings of the complex at 136-144 West 47th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. It is colloquially known as "Smoky Mary's" because of the amount of incense used in the services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes</span> Historic church in Washington, D.C., United States

The Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes is an Episcopal church building located at 1215 Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington, D.C., US. The current structure built in 1874 as the Church of the Ascension was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In the late 1940s, the Church of the Ascension merged with the nearby St. Agnes Episcopal Church and adopted its present name, under which it has continued as an active parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (Manhattan)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer is a Roman Catholic parish in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1918 by the Dominicans; the attached priory serves as the headquarters of the Eastern United States Province of the order. Its architecture has some unusual features: above the front entrance is one of the few statues of the Crucifixion on the exterior of an American Catholic church; and inside, the Stations of the Cross depict Christ with oil paintings instead of statuary or carvings. It has two Schantz pipe organs. The church building, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 66th Street in the Lenox Hill section of the Upper East Side, has been called "one of New York's greatest architectural adornments."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. James Roman Catholic Church (Manhattan)</span> Historic church in Manhattan, New York

St. James' Roman Catholic Church is located at 32 James Street between St. James Place and Madison Street in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is the second oldest Roman Catholic building in the city, built in 1835–1837 of fieldstone, with a pair of Doric columns flanking the entrance. While the neo-classical church is modeled on the published designs by Minard Lefever, and is sometimes attributed to him, there is no hard evidence of this being true. The building was once topped by a domed cupola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Cecilia Church and Convent (New York City)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

St. Cecilia Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and a historic landmark located at 120 East 106th Street between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York. The parish was established in 1873. It was staffed by the Redemptorist Fathers from 1939 to 2007. The church was designated a New York City landmark in 1976. The church and convent were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Cleveland Heights, Ohio)</span> Historic church in Ohio, United States

St. Paul's Episcopal Church is a parish of the Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The current rector is the Rev. Jeanne Leinbach, installed on October 23, 2015. She is the first female rector of St. Paul's. Her predecessor was the Rev. Alan M. Gates, who served from 2004–2014, before his election as Bishop of Massachusetts. St. Paul's is a leading church and has the largest congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John's Catholic Church (Bangor, Maine)</span> Historic church in Maine, United States

St. John's Catholic Church is a historic church at 217 York Street in Bangor, Maine. Built in 1855 at the height of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing movement, it stands as a major symbol of the city's Irish-American heritage, and a high quality local example of Gothic Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Incarnation, Episcopal (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The Church of the Incarnation is a historic Episcopal church at 205–209 Madison Avenue at the northeast corner of 35th Street in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The church was founded in 1850 as a chapel of Grace Church located at 28th Street and Madison. In 1852, it became an independent parish, and in 1864–1865 the parish built its own sanctuary at its current location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Holy Innocents (Brooklyn)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

Church of the Holy Innocents is a historic Roman Catholic parish church in the Diocese of Brooklyn located at 279 E. 17th St. in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, New York. The church was built in 1923 in the Late Gothic Revival style. It is built of granite with limestone trim. It consists of a tall, clerestoried nave with gable roof, lower flat-roofed side aisles, transepts, chancel, and a tall bell tower. Attached to the church is a rectory (1923) and school (1914).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (New York City)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a Catholic parish church located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, and was established in 1851 as St. Lawrence O'Toole's Church. In 1898, permission to change the patron saint of the parish from St. Lawrence O'Toole to St. Ignatius of Loyola was granted by Rome. The address is 980 Park Avenue, New York City, New York 10028. The church on the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 84th Street is part of a Jesuit complex on the block that includes Wallace Hall, the parish hall beneath the church, the rectory at the midblock location on Park Avenue, the grade school of St. Ignatius's School on the north midblock location of 84th Street behind the church and the high school of Loyola School at the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 83rd Street. In addition, another Jesuit high school, Regis High School, occupies the midblock location on the north side of 84th Street. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Transfiguration, Roman Catholic (Manhattan)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

The Church of the Transfiguration is a Roman Catholic parish located at 25 Mott Street on the northwest corner of Mosco Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York and is staffed by the Maryknoll order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Saints Church (Manhattan)</span> Building in New York, United States

The Church of All Saints is a historic former Catholic church in the Archdiocese of New York, located at 47 East 129th Street, at the corner of Madison Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John's Church (Orange, New Jersey)</span> Church in New Jersey, United States

The Church of St. John the Evangelist is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in the City of Orange Township, Essex County, New Jersey, within the Archdiocese of Newark. It is noted for its Gothic Revival style church (building), a prominent local landmark located at 94 Ridge Street.

References

  1. "History of the Church" on the St. Paul the Apostle Church website
  2. NYC-Architecture.com
  3. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  4. Lafort, Remigius. The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg. . (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.363.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   0-231-12543-7., p.240
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Postal, Matthew A. "Church of St. Paul the Apostle Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (June 25, 2013)
  7. 1 2 3 4 Stern, Robert A. M.; Mellins, Thomas; Fishman, David (1999). New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age. Monacelli Press. p. 770. ISBN   978-1-58093-027-7. OCLC   40698653.
  8. Bonafide, John A. (September 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Church of St. Paul the Apostle". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved March 25, 2011.See also: "Accompanying eight photos".
  9. 1 2 Wilkins, Sharon. "At. Paul the Apostle, Church of" in Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-11465-2., p.1141
  10. White, Norval and Willensky, Elliot. AIA Guide to New York City (rev. ed.), New York: Collier Books, 1978. p.146.
  11. "Church of St. Paul the Apostle, New York", Paulist Fathers
  12. "St. Paul's Roman Catholic School", WritLargeNYC, Columbia University Teacher's College
  13. Apostolist - Young Adult Ministry
  14. "Out at St Paul"
  15. Mustard Seed Guild NY
  16. St. Paul the Apostle Bookstore
  17. Cloos, Art. "The Main Event: Convention Recap: Big Apple Comic Con", Scoop
  18. "M. P. Möller, Inc., Opus 9987, 1965". Organ Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  19. "Opus 544: Church of St. Paul the Apostle (New York City, NY)". Organ Historical Society. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  20. "Church of St. Paul the Apostle - New York City". American Guild of Organists. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  21. "Discography". The Virgil Fox Legacy. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  22. "Möller Organ - The Organ Today". July 23, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  23. "3001, Roosevelt/Welte-Tripp, New York, NY". Organs Sold. The Organ Clearing House. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  24. "The Roosevelt Organ Project". July 23, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2021.

Further reading