Epiphany for sale

The church of the Epiphany at 96 South 9th Street is for conversion, sale, or destruction. Please see the decree dated September 28, 2021, linked HERE. I am a bit confused which building was the rectory, as the house numbers do not seem to match on facing sides of the street. The 1922 Catholic Directory lists Epiphany School with 7 Sisters of St. Joseph, one lay teacher, and 352 students at 98 South 9th Street. On the Berry Street side of the property is Epiphany Park, possibly on land from a parish organization. See the description at NYC Parks.

  Sad to relate, St. Agnes Academic HS, College Point, Queens will close.

https://qns.com/2021/01/st-agnes-academic-high-school-in-college-point-to-close-due-to-financial-hardship/

Sad news: Bishop Kearney HS will close

Bishop Kearney High School will close in August. Opened in 1961, it is on the southeast corner of Bay Parkway and 60th Street, Bensonhurst.
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Please see this news story.

Diocesan press release on school closures

The Diocese of Brooklyn has posted a press release explaining the closures and mergers of Catholic Academies this week. The link to the press release dated February 8, 2019, is HERE. 
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Structural problems with the school building on Suydam Street have forced the merger of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Academy into St. Brigid's Catholic Academy one mile east.
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Also in Brooklyn, Mary Queen of Heaven Catholic Academy (Old Mill Basin) and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy (Dyker Heights) will close.

Our Lady of Guadalupe school to close

As of February 8, 2019, it appears that word has leaked out (before official announcement) that Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Academy, with only 120 students, will close in June. Please see this article in the Brooklyn Reporter. The parish and school are in Dyker Heights or Bensonhurst.

St. Michael & St. Edward

Sometimes I find an article from a few years ago that explains much. The link HERE is to an extensive article in Brownstoner about the church of St. Michael and St. Edward near the Navy Yard.

St. Ann, Vinegar Hill

I saw St. Ann's church in Vinegar Hill years before I began taking photos for this blog. The church designed by Patrick Keely was demolished, and now a fight has arisen about development of the property.  One of the later pastors was Fr. Fursey O'Toole.
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Link to an article with photos in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1.25.2017 HERE.

Cathedral College, Washington & Atlantic Avenues

I have only walked by this large, impressive building on the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Washington Avenue, but a new item in N. Y. Curbed (a website with real estate articles) talks about the renovation and offering of one condo in the building.  The link is HERE.
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If I can reconstruct history from my fallible memory, Cathedral College was a minor seminary of the diocese of Brooklyn when "minor seminary" included four years of high school and two years of college.  Many of the students were not residents, as is true at the current Cathedral Prep in Elmhurst, Queens.  Priestly training was in the 6+6 format.  About 1980, the Archdiocese of New York and the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre switched to 4+4+4, that is, four years of high school, four years of college, and four years of theology.  In 2016, New York, Brooklyn, and Rockville Centre send most of their theology students to Dunwoodie in Yonkers. There are few high school seminaries in the United States.
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Many of the priests who taught at Cathedral College at 555 Washington Avenue lived there and assisted in parishes on weekends. The people of the neighborhood suffered some bad years. A priest related how he returned to the college one evening to be met by a homicide unit and a victim in the courtyard pictured in the article.

St. Vincent de Paul, Williamsburg

This post concerns the sale and conversion of three properties of the former parish of St. Vincent de Paul running through from North 6th Street to North 7th Street, Williamsburg.  To the west is Bedford Avenue, with a thronged subway station of the L train.  To the east is Driggs Avenue, with a secondary entrance to the same station.  The photos and narrative are generally in reverse chronological order.  The church was designed by Patrick Keely and dedicated on October 17, 1869, according to several sources, including a report by Fr. Sylvester Malone printed in the Brooklyn Eagle of October 12, 1890.
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It seems that in 2014 lodging in the church was in the form of rental apartments.  The February 12, 2015, issue of Time Out New York has a quarter page story of an actual renter, under the title "Property peep show: Cathedral condo."  I have not been able t find a link to the article and its photos.
Back on May 28, 2014, ny.curbed.com ran a story, linked here.
The Awl on June 30, 2014, ran this critique.

The former rectory has been converted to apartments and is inhabited.

The above photo shows new construction at the north end (apex) of the church.  Acqua Santa restaurant, at 556 Driggs Avenue, is not part of the property.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.  The 49th Street address given for the owner is a mailbox store in Borough Park. It would appear that one project, conversion of the rectory into apartments, is complete.  The conversion of the church is under way, and the drawing in the above photo details the preservation of the facade on North 6th Street.  The skylights in the church roof seem new. Some work has been done on the former school on North Seventh Street, but there appears to be a hiatus in renovation.  Entrances to the Bedford Avenue subway station are only a half-block away.

The next two photos were taken in 2012.

The above photos, taken April 4, 2012, may be enlarged by clicking on each.  Obviously, the buyer of the St. Vincent de Paul property has moved quickly towards gutting and some demolition.  The top photo looks from North 6th Street towards the parish school on North 7th Street, a 1950's building vacant for a few years.  The second building seems to indicate that the senior center used by Catholic Charities, perhaps a former convent, was not sold.  (Yes? No?)  The third photo shows the gutted rectory.
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(Update, October, 2012: I much appreciate this comment from Howard Weber:
The Catholic Charities building referred to as a former convent was actually at one time the residence (friary) of the Franciscan Brothers who staffed St. Francis Prep at 186 North 6th Street ( across the street from St Vincent De Paul) from 1952-1974.

If you look at the cornerstone of that it would appear it was built expressly for that purpose.)

(Update, August, 2013: I much appreciate this comment from Terri White:
I believe that the school located on North 7th street was actually built in the 1960's as I was in the first graduating class in 1969. The original school was on Driggs Avenue and North 6th street and was adjacent to the original St Francis Prep boys high school which is now Boricua College. The convent was also adjacent to St Francis prep on north 6th street just before the row of houses. Terri White.)

A friend mailed me a clipping from the Greenline newspaper, dated March 1-31, 2012, page 4, with the headline, "St. Vincent de Paul Church to Become Apts.; Historic Edifice Will Remain Intact."  The developer The North Flats, according to the story, has applied to the Buildings Department to turn the church into 33 apartments, and the parish house into ten apartments.  The adjacent vacant school on North 7th Street and the parking lot were also part of the purchase.  Please read the notes below in view of this latest news.  I must note that there are similarities with the conversion of the buildings of St. Peter's parish some years ago (at Warren and Hicks Streets, Cobble Hill).
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On December 6, 2011, the Brooklyn Paper linked here reported that the church of St. Vincent de Paul has been sold to a developer.  In recent days, the diocese has removed the bell and stained glass windows for storage in East New York.  The article is not clear about the other buildings adjacent to the church, to the left in the photo below and the school on the adjoining block behind.  It says that zoning restricts development to residential buildings no taller than fifty feet.
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On December 20, 2011, BrooklynEagle.com reported here that the sale price was $13.7 million and the size of the property 37,500 square feet (0.86 acre).  The buyer "plans a new residential project."
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On April 4, 2011, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio issued a decree linked here, stating that the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel could no longer afford to maintain the church of St. Vincent de Paul on North 6th Street and that said church could be sold for profane use after June 30, 2011, except for sordid purposes.
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The photos below date from March, 2010.

For a few years, Armenian Catholics used this church and rectory.  Please see the link here. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction is the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg.

This 1960's school on North 6th Street (photo of March 2010) was in the process of being gutted when I saw the shovel and dump trucks at work 4.5.2012.  Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy has superseded Northside Catholic Academy.  In November, 2013, scaffolding and some debris obscured this side of the building.

St. Ignatius

On March 26, 2013, the diocese issued a press release with the canonical document allowing the church of St. Ignatius to be put up for sale for profane (that is, secular) use, not sordid use.  The contents would become property of the parish of St. Francis of Assisi or, if St. Francis could not use them properly, be placed in diocesan storage.  However, within a few weeks this decree disappeared from the diocesan website.
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I may stand correction, but I believe St. Ignatius church was part of the property of Brooklyn Prep, but did not get sold to CUNY for Medgar Evers College, 1971-1972, as most of the other Prep buildings were sold.   St. Ignatius church faces Rogers Avenue, and is also bounded by Crown Street and Carroll Street. Surrounded by lawn, it is on the east side of Rogers Avenue.
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Please see this 2014 article from ny.curbed.com on the destruction of the church and elimination of the lawn.  An apartment house is there.

St. Blaise, Kingston Avenue

Because today, February 3, is the feast of St. Blaise, a bishop-martyr in Armenia, I looked around for a photo of the church of St. Blaise that was merged into that of St. Francis of Assisi in 1980.  The parish of St. Blaise was established in 1908 as an Italian national parish.  The photo at this link shows the breaking of ground for a new building in 1954.
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The Brooklyn Library Digital Collection offers many photographs, but the links seem to "time out."  You then have to reenter the search word, in this case the word blaise.
The church was at 520 Kingston Avenue between Maple and Woodward Midwood Streets. I wonder whether the Horeb Seventh Day Adventist church seen there on Google Street View is the 1954 church of St. Blaise.
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Yes. Today, 10.21.2018, Deacon John Lynch confirmed that the 1954 church of St. Blaise is the Horeb SDA.

St. Vincent de Paul, Williamsburg

The above photos, taken April 4, 2012, may be enlarged by clicking on each.  Obviously, the buyer of the St. Vincent de Paul property has moved quickly towards gutting and some demolition.  The top photo looks from North 6th Street towards the parish school on North 7th Street, a 1950's building vacant for a few years.  The second building seems to indicate that the senior center used by Catholic Charities, perhaps a former convent, was not sold.  (Yes? No?)  The third photo shows the gutted rectory.
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(Update, October, 2012: I much appreciate this comment from Howard Weber:
The Catholic Charities building referred to as a former convent was actually at one time the residence (friary) of the Franciscan Brothers who staffed St. Francis Prep at 186 North 6th Street ( across the street from St Vincent De Paul) from 1952-1974.

If you look at the cornerstone of that it would appear it was built expressly for that purpose.)

(Update, August, 2013: I much appreciate this comment from Terri White:
I believe that the school located on North 7th street was actually built in the 1960's as I was in the first graduating class in 1969. The original school was on Driggs Avenue and North 6th street and was adjacent to the original St Francis Prep boys high school which is now Boricua College. The convent was also adjacent to St Francis prep on north 6th street just before the row of houses. Terri White.)

A friend mailed me a clipping from the Greenline newspaper, dated March 1-31, 2012, page 4, with the headline, "St. Vincent de Paul Church to Become Apts.; Historic Edifice Will Remain Intact."  The developer The North Flats, according to the story, has applied to the Buildings Department to turn the church into 33 apartments, and the parish house into ten apartments.  The adjacent vacant school on North 7th Street and the parking lot were also part of the purchase.  Please read the notes below in view of this latest news.  I must note that there are similarities with the conversion of the buildings of St. Peter's parish some years ago (at Warren and Hicks Streets, Cobble Hill).
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On December 6, 2011, the Brooklyn Paper linked here reported that the church of St. Vincent de Paul has been sold to a developer.  In recent days, the diocese has removed the bell and stained glass windows for storage in East New York.  The article is not clear about the other buildings adjacent to the church, to the left in the photo below and the school on the adjoining block behind.  It says that zoning restricts development to residential buildings no taller than fifty feet.
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On December 20, 2011, BrooklynEagle.com reported here that the sale price was $13.7 million and the size of the property 37,500 square feet (0.86 acre).  The buyer "plans a new residential project."
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On April 4, 2011, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio issued a decree linked here, stating that the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel could no longer afford to maintain the church of St. Vincent de Paul on North 6th Street and that said church could be sold for profane use after June 30, 2011, except for sordid purposes.
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The photos below date from March, 2010.

For a few years, Armenian Catholics used this church and rectory.  Please see the link here. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction is the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg.

This building on North 6th Street (photo of March 2010) was in the process of being gutted or leveled when I saw the shovel and dump trucks at work 4.5.2012.  Queen of the Rosary Catholic Academy has superseded Northside Catholic Academy.
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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.  

Nativity, Classon Avenue, closed

Please see link here.
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Many thanks to the New York City chapter of the American Society of Organists for providing this informative history.
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Many thanks to a former parishioner for her comment linked here.



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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. 
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The bulletin of the combined parishes a few years ago said that Mass is offered Monday to Friday at the convent of the Missionaries of Charity, 34 Aberdeen Street, telephone 718-443-2868. (I cannot confirm this in 2017.)  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.
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As of 1.5.2017, I'm uncertain about the accuracy of the above description of the property. Please note this Brownstoner article dated 1.4.2017 on the construction of 63 affordable apartments in the convent.
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Another article in the Brownstoner dated 1.21.2019, brings us up to date. The link is HERE. Much of the property was sold for apartments. The school, however, is now rented to a charter school. The Missionaries of Charity are not mentioned.

Fourteen Holy Martyrs, Closed

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, which continues to use the buildings.
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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 the church of Fourteen Holy Martyrs was located on the ground floor of the school, pictured below.
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Many thanks also to a former student, who wrote, "I went to that school starting about 1948.  At that time the church was in the same building as the school.  As the parish got larger, they had to use the other building to hold the overflow.  Both buildings were used as a church.  I don't know when they started to use the second building as a church." 
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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.

Our Lady of Loreto, Brownsville

At the corner of Pacific and Sackman Streets, in Ocean Hill, Brownsville, or East New York, is the church of Our Lady of Loreto, by Italians a century ago. An excellent story about this parish appeared in the New York Times, December 29, 2008, titled "A Church that held the neighborhood's heart," link here.
The location is just south of Atlantic Avenue, close to the eastbound platform of the Long Island Rail Road's East New York station.
The parish school closed in 1988.
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On 4.21.2016, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a lengthy article about the status of the church of Our Lady of Loreto.  Here is the link: Our Lady of Loreto is an Ocean Hill Cultural Treasure.
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In February of 2017, the activities of several organizations to save the edifice continue, as this website attests: link HERE.
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As of August 17, 2017:
https://www.facebook.com/saveOLL/photos/a.1828960780700772.1073741826.1828956094034574/1907278016202381/?type=1&theater
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As of October 16, 2017, the church has been demolished. Curbed NY has a twitter photo of the rubble. Link HERE.

St Ambrose, Tompkins Ave.

On the southwest corner of Tompkins and DeKalb Avenues is Mt. Pisgah church and school, formerly the parish and school of St. Ambrose. About 1978, the congregation of St. Ambrose parish was moved into the smaller buildings of Our Lady of Monserrate, a few blocks south on Tompkins Avenue at Vernon Avenue. It seems that in January, 2008, that combined parish was itself handed over to All Saints, at Throop and Flushing Avenues.
For a discussion of the church building that was St. Ambrose, see this article from the Brownstoner and, more importantly, the comments below the article.
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North of St. Ambrose is the Brooklyn Triangle redevelopment zone, the subject of dispute as described (how accurately?) in this Daily News article of 11.26.2008.
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Men and women of the parish faithful appear on a marvelous website here, replete with pages and pages of photos. The Sisters of St. Joseph staffed the school for decades. St. Ambrose school closed in 1973, according to the diocesan website. Sadly, even the Baptist Mt. Pisgah Christian Academy shows weak numbers, with only fourteen students in 8th grade.



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