Our Lady of Lourdes, Bushwick

Our Lady of Lourdes parish, located along Broadway between Bushwick and East New York, has been combined with the parish of St. Martin of Tours. The building on DeSales Place in the above photo seems to be the former rectory, whose office is now located at St. Martin of Tours, 1288 Hancock St, Brooklyn, NY 11221, telephone 718-443-8484. The photo is taken from the window of a westbound J train between the Broadway Junction and Chauncey Street stations. To the left can be seen the former parish elementary school now used as Lourdes Academy High School, a member of the Cristo Rey network. That building faces Aberdeen Street.
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The bulletin of the combined parishes says that Mass is offered Monday to Friday at the convent of the Missionaries of Charity, 34 Aberdeen Street, telephone 718-443-2868. Sunday at 11 a.m. a bi-lingual Mass is offered at 89 Furman Avenue.
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For an excellent capsule history of the parish, please see McNamara's Blog, linked here. The parish of St. Francis de Sales was established in 1872 and renamed Our Lady of Lourdes in 1897. For many decades, it was staffed by the Fathers of Mercy, a missionary and preaching congregation. That may be one reason for the the large size of the rectory.

Blessed Sacrament, Euclid Avenue, Cypress Hills

As one rides the J train from Jamaica to the Williamsburg Bridge, so many steeples are seen that it is difficult to name them. The train crosses an invisible border from Queens to Brooklyn and stops at Crescent Street, Brooklyn, on an old section of the Fulton Street el. This photo of Blessed Sacrament parish is taken from the train platform.
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The mailing address for Blessed Sacrament parish is 198 Euclid Ave., Brooklyn NY 11208, telephone 718-827-1200.
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The parish school is at 187 Euclid Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11208. The school telephone is 718-235-4863.

The parish school is accredited by the Middle States Association (Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools). The evaluation team will soon reevaluate the school for renewal of its accreditation, a process all MSA school undergo periodically.

I note the trilingual sign above: Latin, English, Spanish.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

Is that St. Francis at the rectory door?

"Our church is open all day. Venid y adoremos." As I have observed at other unlocked churches in Brooklyn, worshipers visit the church often. I have seldom found an empty church.
The parish bulletin is one of the friendliest and most welcoming that I have seen.

This 1891 cornerstone may have been removed from the old church when the present church was built in the 1920's. Please see the helpful narrative of parish history linked here.

St. Martin of Tours, Bushwick

St. Martin of Tours church faces Weirfield Street and Irving Square. Knickerbocker Avenue with the parish school is at the right. Most hours, the church gates are padlocked. The inscription above the pillars reads, "Ecclesia Sancti Martini Turonensis." St. Martin lived from about 316 to 397. Successor to St. Brice, Martin was bishop of the diocese of Tours, France.

The Mass schedule is posted outside the rectory door at 1288 Hancock Street, Brooklyn, NY 11221, just south of Knickerbocker Avenue. The phone number is 718-443-8484. This parish includes the closed parish of Fourteen Holy Martyrs. The rectory also serves as rectory for the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes. Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.
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The website of the combined parish is linked here.

Above is the parish school at 751 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11221, telephone 718-386-4050. Some years ago, the school was renamed St. Elizabeth Seton Parish School. In early 2009, Bishop DiMarzio threatened to close the school, but later allowed it to accept new students.
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The website of the parish school is linked here.

For years, the Sisters of St. Joseph have provided staff for this school.

Fourteen Holy Martyrs, Bushwick

The parish of Fourteen Holy Martyrs was established on Central Avenue, Bushwick, in 1887. After its 1976 merger with the parish of St. Martin of Tours, the property was sold to Pilgrim Church. The school, parish hall, and rectory still stand in 2009.
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Many thanks to a graduate of the class of 1962 for sending me a correction. He wrote that the building at the left above is a new parish hall, built in the 1960's to replace an older parish hall. He also explained that church of Fourteen Holy Martyrs was located on the ground floor of the school, pictured below.
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The parish was named after a popular Bavarian devotion, that of the Vierzehn Nothelfer. For decades, the Dominican Sisters of Amityville staffed the parish school.

Both views look west on Central Avenue towards Covert Street and a public junior high school. For some years, until about 2002, the Pilgrim Christian Academy educated elementary school children in this building, the former church and parish school. Apparently, the academy has made another attempt to open. One address seems to be 628 Central Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11207.

Visitation, Red Hook

The address for Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish rectory, seen at the left of the above photo, is 98 Richards Street, Brooklyn NY 11231, telephone 718-624-5172. The church itself is on the southwest corner of Richards Street and Verona Street. The photo looks north, with Red Hook Park to the photographer's right.

On the southwest corner of Richards Street and Visitation Place is the former convent, now with some other use. The former parish school, mid-block on the north side of Visitation Place, appears to be used used by a health agency.
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A correspondent who has roots in this parish sent several notes of interest, which I will quote below.

"There is a website http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Bkln/html/VisitationRC.html that tells of the history of the organ in the Church. The organ was unbelievable.

"There is also website www.southbrooklyn.com. If you go to the beginning entries, there is a lot of information (historical) about different things concerning the church and school. You would have to scroll a lot to pick up on little things.

"As far as the falling enrollment, Visitation School did not have tuition until late 60's and I think it was $10.00. We were taught mainly by nuns. I don't know if the loss of the nuns in the parish and the loss of various closings of industries in the area (Todd Shipyards, Sucrest) which employed more than half of Red Hook had anything to do with it."

Sacred Hearts and St Stephen, Carroll Gardens

The postal address for the parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and St. Stephen is 108 Carroll Street, Brooklyn NY 11231, telephone 718-596-7750. The parish website is linked here. The above view looks east across the canyon of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Interstate 278.

The above view looks north on Hicks Street, with the church at the corner of Summit Street. The rectory is on Carroll Street, behind the church. Patrick Charles Keely designed St. Stephen's church. In 1941, the planned construction of the expressway caused the loss of the newer church of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and that parish was merged with St. Stephen's. Please see the date December 7, 1941, in the parish history, linked here.

Summit Street bears an alternate name, Monsignor Del Vecchio Place. Francis Del Vecchio was pastor from about 1950 until 1986. See a biographical obituary here.
For decades, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, staffed the parish school.

The parish has a Facebook page here.

St. Charles Borromeo, Brooklyn Heights

Above is the church of St. Charles Borromeo at the corner of Sidney Place and Aiken Place in Brooklyn Heights. The parish address is 21 Sidney Place, Brooklyn NY 11201, telephone 718-625-1177. This location is two blocks west of Borough Hall and just south of Joralemon Street. The parish website is linked here.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it. To the right of this sign is a cornerstone bearing the date 1896. I understand that this church was designed by Patrick Keely.

Above is the parish school, now closed. A sign in the window inquires whether neighbors would have a need for pre-school here. The cornerstone is dated 1916.

On Sidney Place, a convent is to the right of the school.