Holy Family, Flatlands Ave., Canarsie

Above, the church of the Holy Family stands at the busy intersection of Rockaway Parkway and Flatlands Avenue in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The mailing address is 9719 Flatlands Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11236, telephone 718-257-4423. A website is under construction HERE.


The "cornerstone" to the right shows the 1950 date of the construction of this church, replacing an older parish church. The parish was founded in 1880.


Left to right on the north side of Flatlands Avenue: the church, rectory, and former school.
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Two other churches dedicated to the Holy Family exist in the borough of Brooklyn, one in Greenpoint, the other on 14th Street, Park Slope.
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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.

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. The parish website is linked HERE.
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The parish school is at 187 Euclid Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11208. The school telephone is 718-235-4863.  Its website is linked here.

The parish school is accredited by the Middle States Association (Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools).

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 dedicated in 1912.  Please see the helpful narrative of parish history linked here.  Also see the excellent account given here on McNamara's blog.
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Please note that there is a link to Comments at the top of this post.  A new and much appreciated comment was received 2.13.2011.
Please note this admirable website, the East New York Project, with pages and pages of photos and commentary, found by using the zone tabs across the top.

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. Martin was bishop of the diocese of Tours, France. He did not get along well with St. Brice, who succeeded him.

The rectory is 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. 
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The website of the combined parish is linked here, and it includes the Mass schedule at St. Martin of Tours church and Our Lady of Lourdes chapel.

Above is the former parish school at 751 Knickerbocker Avenue. 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. The Brooklyn Tablet of 5.5.2010 announced that the school, with an enrollment of 180, would close in June, 2010.
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For years, the Sisters of St. Joseph provided staff for this school.  The above photos are from 2009.

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.

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 718-624-1572. 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.
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A new website for the parish is linked HERE.

On the southwest corner of Richards Street and Visitation Place is the former convent, now with some other use.
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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.

"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."
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In 2000, the Red Hook Community Justice Center, moved into Visitation School at 88 Visitation Place.

Sacred Hearts and St Stephen, Carroll Gardens

The above photo was taken from a Staten Island ferry in June, 2014, minus the scaffolding seen in the 2009 photos below.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

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.