St. Patrick, Kent Avenue, demolished

In early January of 2024, wrecking crews attacked the church of St. Patrick on Kent Avenue, corner of Willoughby Avenue. Please see the article on the BKReader linked here. The church, designed by Patrick Keely, was built in 1856. Even after the merger with St. Lucy  parish, it apparently had low attendance. The diocese of Brooklyn or one of its entities received $9,250,000 from the sale. Adjacent lots added to that price.

---

An article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of November 5 1854, describes the laying of the cornerstone. The article gives the architect's name as James J. Lyons.

---

Also see a Patch article HERE.

---

Please see more of my posts about this church on Kent Avenue. They are linked HERE.

---

It seems that the closest Catholic church with daily Mass is Sacred Heart at 32 Clermont Avenue, a mile northwest of St. Patrick's. See Mass schedule.

---

As to what will be built on the northwest corner, replacing the demolished church: maybe apartments similar to those on the northeast corner, with provisions for sukkah or sukkot.

St. Patrick, Kent Ave., for sale

Usually, it is easy to find diocesan decrees on a website, but in this case I can only refer to a July 18, 2022, Tablet article behind a registration wall HERE.

---

In 1856, the renowned architect Patrick Keely built St. Patrick's church on the northwest corner of Kent Avenue and Willoughby Avenue. In 2010, the nearby parish of St. Lucy was merged into it. Now, the church is falling down, and in June the Bishop decreed its sale. Among the several reasons for my guess that the buyer will demolish it is the growing Hasidic community nearby.

Please refer to my older post.

August, 2013, changes in schools

This post is stale news because I did not notice a diocesan summary dated August, 2013.  In transforming elementary schools into quasi-independent Catholic academies, the diocese announced these changes:
St. Patrick School, Bay Ridge or Fort Hamilton, is now a Catholic Academy.  Please see the website here.
St. Peter Catholic Academy is the new name of  St. Mary Mother of Jesus - St. Frances Cabrini Academy, 23rd Avenue, Bensonhurst. For more description, also see this post.
---
St. Anselm Catholic Academy is the new name of St. Anselm's parish school, 83rd Street, Bay Ridge.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy is the new name of St. Francis Xavier parish school, Park Slope.
St. Jerome Catholic Academy is the new name of St. Jerome parish school, Flatbush.
Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy now has one campus, at St. Jude's, Canarsie Road.

November, 2010, Announcements of Closings and Mergers

A Tablet article dated 11.17.2010 concerning the closing and merging of some Brooklyn parishes is linked here. The article includes several photos of interest: St. Edward, St. Patrick (Kent Ave., already including St. Lucy), Our Lady of Montserrat (already including St. Ambrose), and St. Ignatius. How long this article will remain available on the internet is unpredictable. That is one reason why I take my own photos. However, books will outlast blogs!

St. Lucy - St. Patrick, Kent Avenue

Please read this decree concerning the merger of this parish into that of Mary of Nazareth, 41 Adelphi Street, effective January 31, 2011. The name of the parish is Mary of Nazareth, but the name of the church at 41 Adelphi Street is Sacred Heart. It is about a mile west of St. Patrick's.
-----

Note the 1843 date on the sign, ten years before the creation of the diocese of Brooklyn. According to John Sharp in "History of the Diocese of Brooklyn," vol. 1, p. 113, Catholics in this neighborhood "on the Newtown Road" (Flushing Avenue) purchased a Methodist church near what is now the intersection of Kent and Willoughby Avenues, and named their church St. Mary's. Bishop Hughes of New York sent them a pastor. About 1849, the parish was renamed St. Patrick's. The church shown below was dedicated by Bishop Loughlin of Brooklyn in 1856, three years after the diocese was created.



At the corner of Willoughby and Kent Avenue stands this church built in 1856 by the famous architect Patrick Charles Keely. My photos date from March, 2005. However, please also see this link
-----

In August, 2023, Brownstoner predicts that the church will be demolished. Yes,  it was demolished by the new owners in January, 2024.

----
In the block adjacent to the left side of the church (that is, going downtown on Willoughby Avenue) is the historic property of the convent and orphanage of the Sisters of Mercy. The place is far more than historic; it is was important to many families for more than a century. A New York Times article is linked here.




----

St. Patrick, Bay Ridge

The rectory address is 9511 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn NY 11209, phone 718-238-2600. The parish website is linked here.
----
St. Patrick's parish at 95th Street and 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge was probably the eighth Catholic parish founded in what is now the borough of Brooklyn. It may be the first Brooklyn parish named for Patrick, because the 1848 founding of St. Patrick's, Kent Avenue, was apparently under the title of St. Mary, changed later to St. Patrick. 

The cornerstone of the church carries the date 1925, the same year that the BMT subway reached 95th Street and probably led to a large increase in parish population. In the early 1960's, however, Robert Moses and his ramps for the Verrazano Bridge probably destroyed much housing within the parish boundaries, though my recollection is that the people of St. Ephrem parish suffered more.


The address of St. Patrick Catholic Academy at the right is 401 97th Street. The school website is HERE.
In 1945 the school had 1,140 students. In the 2016 Official Catholic Directory, the enrollment is 262. For decades, the Dominican Sisters of Amityville staffed the school.
-----
The Brooklyn Public Library posted a 1908 photo of the previous church (pre-1925) here.



----