Our Lady of Lourdes Church (Manhattan) explained

Church of Our Lady of Lourdes
Coordinates:	40.8232°N -73.9483°W
Location:	463 West 142nd Street New York, New York 10031
Country:	United States
Denomination:	Roman Catholic Church
Website:	lourdesnyc.org
Founded Date:	1901
Founder:	The Rev. Joseph H. McMahon
Dedication:	Our Lady of Lourdes
Architect:	Peter B. Wight (facade), Cornelius O'Reilly
Architectural Type:	church
Style:	Venetian Gothic & Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking:	1902
Completed Date:	1904^[1]
Construction Cost:	$80,000
Archdiocese:	New York
Division:	Vicariate of North Manhattan
Pastor:	Rev. Gilberto Angel-Neri

The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes is a parish church in New York City, under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of New York, located at 463 West 142nd Street between Convent and Amsterdam Avenues in Manhattan.

History

The parish was established in 1901 under the authority of Michael Corrigan, the Archbishop of New York,^[2] to serve the growing Catholic population of the Hamilton Heights neighborhood. Corrigan assigned the task to the Rev. Joseph H. McMahon, who had just served as a curate at St. Patrick's Cathedral for the previous fifteen years.^[3]

Description

The church was built in 1902-04 at the cost of $80,000^[4] to the design of Cornelius O'Reilly of the O'Reilly Brothers firm. The building combined discarded elements of three recently demolished structures, which McMahon was able to obtain at a bargain:

• the facade on 142nd Street uses elements of the National Academy of Design building which stood at East 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South), and was designed by Peter B. Wight in a style influenced by Venetian Gothic architecture; it was used in a way to reflect that of the original shrine for that devotion located in Lourdes, France.
• the church's apse and part of its eastern wall, including stained-glass windows, were elements removed from James Renwick Jr.'s St. Patrick's Cathedral to allow for the building of the Lady Chapel there;^[5] and
• the pedestals on either side of the entrance steps came from the mansion of department store magnate A. T. Stewart, called the "Marble Palace", which was designed by John Kellum, and which stood at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue until 1901.

The church, which has been called "one of the oddest buildings in New York",^[6] was designated a New York City Landmark on July 22, 1975.^[7]

• Bricks from the cathedral were used to construct the church

The parish established a school in 1903 which was staffed by the Ursuline nuns. Ten years later a larger school was constructed, which was also served by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.

Current status

Today the parish serves a congregation of African Americans, Dominicans, Ecuadorians, Eritreans and Mexicans, among others.

See also

• List of New York City Landmarks

Notes and References

1. p.315
2. Lafort, Remigius. The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women.. (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.358.
3. Web site: The New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Church of Our Lady of Lourdes.
4. http://www.metrohistory.com/dbpages/NBresults.lasso Office for Metropolitan History
5. , p.164
6. p.196
7. [New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]