Saturday, January 21, 2012

St. Teresa of Avila, Sterling Place



Effective November 1, 2018, the parish of St. Teresa of Avila has been merged into the parish of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. 
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The church of St. Teresa of Avila is located on the northeast corner of Classon Avenue and Sterling Place.  Its postal address is 563 Sterling Place, Brooklyn NY 11238, telephone 718-622-6500.



Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.



Yes, the cornerstone of this church was laid in 1874.  For more of the church history, please see this link.




The parish had two school buildings, one here on the southeast corner of Sterling Place and Classon Avenue.




               

On the north side of St. John's Place are the auditorium, the second school, and senior apartments.  The B45 bus connecting downtown Brooklyn with Crown Heights provides frequent service, eastbound on St. John's Place, westbound on Sterling Place.
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The school in the above photo, at 541 St. John's Place, as of December, 2018, houses a training center for court officers in the New York State Court system. "The facility will contain five new classrooms, a conference room, offices and a multipurpose gym," according to an announcement by the Supreme Court Officers Association. By January, 2024, the Court Officers Academy is in three buildings. The third and smallest is a dormitory for trainees who would have difficulty reaching this location on an early morning drive.

The training facility is named after New York State Court Officers Capt. William Thompson, Sgt. Thomas Jurgens, and Sgt. Michael Wallace, who died on 9.11.2001.
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I received this inquiry in February, 2013:

Both my parents graduated from St. Teresa's school in the 1920 - 1930 era . (mother Kathleen Campbell - father - Howard Nicols).  My grandmother lived across the street at 568 Sterling Place.  I grew up on Carroll St. in St. Ignatius parish and attended St. Francis of Assisi school.

 I had a yearbook type magazine about growing up in St. Theresa's parish in particular, and in Brooklyn in general.  I lent this to a friend and never got it back.  Do you know of this book and where, if possible, I can get a copy.

Any help would be appreciated.  Gail Nicols Tumulty  gtumulty(at)comcast.net
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I wasn't able to post a comment on your site because none of those profiles seem to apply to me, and I wasn't sure what to do....

Wonderful, wonderful website!  Occasionally I look around the internet for pictures or stories about St. Teresa of Avila church and school, and that is how I came about your site. 

I graduated from St. Teresa of Avila in June 1958 and my mother in February 1927 when the girls school (Sterling and Classon) was only three stories plus the basement.  My mother's brother graduated from the boys school (St. John's and Classon) probably the next year. 

I tried to respond to Gail who left the inquiry earlier this month about a “yearbook type magazine” and the e-mail was returned to me.  I had copied and pasted it, of course changing the (at) to @  so it was accurate.  Can you please check and see if the e-mail address she provided just this month is the same as what appears on your site. 

I don’t know where she can get another book, other than Googling it or writing to the author or alumni association, etc., but I might have to what she’s referring, and I also have the St. T’s 1924 Golden Jubilee book and the 1949 Diamond Jubilee book.  If there was something in particular she wanted, I could scan it and e-mail it to her.

Many thanks for your efforts!  Great job!

Helen Sauer Mirande
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From the editor:
Posting a comment on this blog has become a bit complicated.  It does work, but with these hurdles:
1) I have chosen to require that Blogger (Google's free tool) send me the comments first for approval.  That has weeded out some spam, for example, a car repair firm in Brooklyn!
2) Blogger now requires some identification from the person placing the comment. Again, that keeps down trolls.
3) Blogger continues to hide the email address of the person commenting, making it difficult to reply to any inquiry!
These safety precautions are reasonable, but they somewhat hinder conversation.




St. Joseph Co-cathedral, Pacific Street



St. Joseph parish, Prospect Heights, is located at 856 Pacific Street, Brooklyn NY 11238, telephone 718-638-1071.  The website is linked here. The parish was established in 1850 by Archbishop John Hughes of New York.  The diocese of Brooklyn was created in late 1853.  "Diocese of Immigrants" shows an older church here with one steeple.  The cornerstone of this church is dated 1912.


The above interior photo was taken in early 2012, before the extensive renovations.


This banner appears adjacent to the apse, along the Dean Street side of the church.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.



The former school, built around 1920, is a senior residence at 683 Dean Street.  The church apse may be seen to the east.


This view southeast from Atlantic Avenue shows both the church and the school.  In 2012, construction continues on the 22-acre Atlantic Yards project, of which Vanderbilt Avenue (crossing this photo) is the eastern end.
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The bulletin reported attendance at three Sunday Masses on 8.14.2016 as about 375.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

St. Benedict, Fulton Street

A reader favored me with an inquiry about St. Benedict, a German national parish which existed for 120 years (1853-1973) on the south side of Fulton Street west of Ralph Avenue.  When the church at 1916 Fulton Street was sold in 1973, it continued as a place of Christian worship, now the Mount Sinai Cathedral.  The parish school on Herkimer Street is now a Head Start Center.  
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Credit for information: Arcadia Book, "Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle post cards, 1902-1905."
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A photo of the church that was St. Benedict's appears on the Facebook page of Mt Sinai Cathedral, linked here.  It is an excellent photo and can be enlarged by clicking on it.
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Above is a view looking north from a train on Atlantic Avenue, taken in January, 2012.  The school faces Herkimer Street. The church faces Fulton Street. Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.
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Page 38 of "Diocese of Immigrants" has photos of eight German parishes, but not St. Benedict.
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The first pastor, Fr. Maurus Ramsauer, was a Benedictine.