St. Peter's Church (Poughkeepsie, New York)

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Old St. Peter Church (now Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)
Lady of Mt Carmel RCC Poughk jeh.JPG
General information
LocationPoughkeepsie, New York
CountryUnited States of America
Coordinates 41°42′33″N73°56′13″W / 41.7093°N 73.9369°W / 41.7093; -73.9369 Coordinates: 41°42′33″N73°56′13″W / 41.7093°N 73.9369°W / 41.7093; -73.9369
OwnerRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York

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 (after St. Mary's in Albany) 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 (located a block away) relocated to site.

Catholic Church Largest Christian church, led by the Bishop of Rome

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017. As the world's oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution, it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the pope. Its central administration is the Holy See.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Archdiocese of the Catholic Church

The Roman CatholicArchdiocese of New York is a Latin Catholic archdiocese in New York State. 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 in New York. The Archdiocese of New York is the second-largest diocese in the United States, encompassing 296 parishes that serve around 2.8 million Catholics in addition to hundreds of Catholic schools, hospitals and charities. The Archdiocese also operates the well-known St. Joseph's Seminary, commonly referred to as Dunwoodie. The Archdiocese of New York is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of New York which includes the suffragan dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Rochester, Rockville Centre and Syracuse.

Poughkeepsie, New York City in New York, United States

Poughkeepsie, officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie, is a city in the state of New York, United States, which is the county seat of Dutchess County. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 32,736. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson Valley midway between New York City and Albany, and is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name derives from a word in the Wappinger language, roughly U-puku-ipi-sing, meaning "the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place", referring to a spring or stream feeding into the Hudson River south of the present downtown area.

Contents

History

Congregation of the Hudson

Twenty-two years after the Diocese of New York was founded in 1808, Bishop John DuBois, in 1830, authorized a Dominican, Father Phillip O’Reilly to establish parishes on the Hudson River north of Manhattan Island. The first congregation he ministered to was the small group of 28 Irish-born Catholic families, who on October 14, 1831 were organized as the Congregation on the Hudson.

Philip O'Reilly O.P. was stationed at Newburgh, New York from 1830 to 1832 and would visit Poughkeepsie once a month in summer. Fr. Patrick Duffy was pastor of Paterson, New Jersey from 1823–1836, when he was sent first to Our Lady of Loretto in Cold Spring. From there he served congregations in West Point, Cold Spring, Newburgh, Saugerties, Rondout, and Poughkeepsie. When the house of Robert Belton became too small for the number attending, Mass was celebrated in the old brewery, near the Lower Landing at Pine Street. And later at the Hibbasus' hall on Market Street near Jay Street. [1]

St. Peter's Church

By 1825 emigrants from Ireland were numerous enough in Poughkeepsie to form a well defined segment of the population. In 1837 a church building was erected on land donated by Peter Everett. When some bigoted individuals threatened to burn it down, a vigilance committee, made up of Catholics and Protestants, was formed to defend it. Dr. Pyne, a non-Catholic offered the defenders the loan of a small cannon. There was no further trouble. [1] The church was dedicated by Bishop DuBois on November 26, 1837. The pastor at that time was Rev. Patrick Duffy, who was then transferred to Newburgh. Rev. John McGinnis succeeded Duffy. The missions at Saugerties and Rondout were made dependencies of St. Peter's with expectation that each would be attended at least once a month. [2]

In 1839 McGinnis was succeeded by Rev. John N. Smith. It was Smith who erected a small frame church at Rondout. He also made trips to Rosendale. In 1842 Smith was assigned to St. James in New York, and Rev. Myles Maxwell became pastor at St. Peter's. Smith died in February 1848, having contracted ship's fever while attending the deathbed of Father Mark Murphy who had been ministering to immigrants at the quarantine station on Staten Island. [2]

Father Michael Riordan became pastor in September 1844 and "steered it safely" through the "Know-Nothing" agitation at that time. He had substantial influence among the Irish building the railroad and more than once quelled disturbances that threatened to turn into riots. [3]

In 1894 Father James Nilan commissioned the paintings of the Stations of the Cross and had them shipped from Rome. The Apostolic Nuncio from Washington and Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York attended the dedication. Removed during subsequent renovation, they were discovered when Our Lady of Mount Carmel assumed occupancy of Old St. Peter's and restored. The parish held a celebration in 1994, on the centennial anniversary of their dedication La Morte, Richard. "Walkway Over the Hudson Oral Histories", Hudson River Institute</ref>

Michael Corrigan Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York

Michael Augustine Corrigan was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third archbishop of New York from 1885 to 1902.

The abandoned rectory burned around 1977.

Mission churches

In those early days, the spiritual needs of the local Catholic community were met by priests riding circuit out of St. Peter’s in Poughkeepsie. Father Maginnis (1837) was pastor not only of all Dutchess County, but also of Rondout and Saugerties across the river. By 1840 St. Peter’s parish also included mission churches in Sylvan Lake and New Hamburg. Father Michael Riordan, pastor of St. Peter’s, and Father Myles Maxwell are remembered among a number of priests from St. Peter's' who also tended to St.Mary's in Wappingers Falls, founded in 1845. [4]

In 1965 St. Peter's parish re-located to Hyde Park, NY. Until acquiring the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, in 1999, St. Peter's functioned as a parish without a church. Masses were held in the school gymnasium.

Pastors

Architecture

The rectangular-on-plan Baroque Revival red brick church with marble trim is composed of a street-facing three-bay front facade, and a five-bay nave. Low-pitched roof concealed to forward bay by painted timber balustraded parapet. Two-stage painted timber square-on-plan tower rises out of center facade bay with octagonal second stages surmounted by a bellcast-needle-like spire: both stage louvred. Red brick walls detailed with marble platband plinths, cornices, and parapet coping. Round-headed double-height stained-glass windows to each bay with separating pilasters detailed with limestone capitals.

St. Peter's School

St. Peter's School was established 166 years ago when Father Michael Riordan, Pastor of St. Peter's Church, saw a need for Catholic education in the Poughkeepsie area. The school was established in the basement of the Church, which was then on Mill Street in Poughkeepsie. By 1860, there was a great need to expand. It was around that time that the Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Vincent arrived to take charge of the girls' school on Clove St. In 1869, a boys' school was established across the street. In 1914 there were 325 boys enrolled in the school taught by five Marist Brothers, and 310 girls at the girls' school taught by six Sisters of Charity.

In 1965, the school was relocated to its present location on Violet Avenue, where it remains to this day. [5]

St. Peter's Cemetery

Old St.Peter's Churchyard was located in the city of Poughkeepsie, NY on the east side of East Mansion St. and was in use from 1841 to 1884. The burying ground an East Mansion street, a parochial cemetery, was the resting place of a number of the first generation of Irish Immigrants to this locality. Subsequently, a second St. Peter's Cemetery was established on Salt Point Rd. in Poughkeepsie.

Celtic cross

On a prominent rise overlooking St. Peter's Cemetery is a World War I monument in memory of over 100 local men who served in World War I. The Celtic cross was originally built in 1917 of pre-cast concrete. By 1993 it was so badly deteriorated that it was dismantled and replaced the following year by one of solid granite approximately 30 feet tall.

Churches that developed from St. Peter's

Records of Closed Churches

Parish records for the Church of the Nativity, formerly on Union Street, remain in the City of Poughkeepsie at Old St. Peter's Church (now Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church). [6]

Parish records for St John the Baptist, formerly located at 1 Grand Street, and which closed in 2007, are also at Old St. Peters.

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