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St. Agnes Church (New York City)

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Coordinates: 40°45′6.57″N 73°58′28.08″W / 40.7518250°N 73.9744667°W / 40.7518250; -73.9744667
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Church of Saint Agnes
Map
General information
Architectural styleGothic Revival (1877 church)[1]
Baroque Revival (1998 rebuild)[2]
LocationNew York City, United States
Construction started1873
Completed1877 (church)
1904 (sacristy and rectory)
1998 (rebuild)
DemolishedDecember 10, 1992 (fire)
Cost$31,000 (sacristy and rectory)
$8,000,000 (demolition and rebuild)
ClientRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Technical details
Structural systemMasonry
Design and construction
Architect(s)Lawrence J. O'Connor (1877 church)
Jeremiah O'Rourke & Sons (1904 sacristy and rectory)
Acheson, Thornton, Doyle (1998 rebuild)
Website
Church of St. Agnes, Manhattan

The Church of St. Agnes is a parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 143 East 43rd Street, Manhattan, New York City.[3] The parish was established in 1873.[4]

Parish

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The parish was intended to serve Italian laborers of the new Grand Central Depot.[1][2] Rev. Harry Cummings Macdowell, nephew of Rev. Jeremiah Williams Cummings of St. Stephen's, was the first pastor, assisted by Rev. A. Catoggio. The parish was organized on July 13, 1873. Macdowell had rented a hall over Croton Market on 42nd Street as a temporary chapel and passed out handbills to announce the fact to the local Catholic residents.[5]

A Sunday school was begun on 43rd Street. The parish school, located at 152 East 44th Street, was organized in 1893.

In 1939, St. Gabriel Church on East 37th Street was closed to make way for the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, and part of the congregation was directed to St. Agnes.[6][7]

The church hosted Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's radio and television broadcasts on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for over half a century. The broadcasts, including the famous "Death of Stalin," were some of the most important influences in reshaping mainstream twentieth-century American attitudes on Catholicism.[1] Other notable clergy have included Bishop John J. O'Hara,[8] Monsignor John P. Chidwick, Monsignor Eugene V. Clark, and Father George W. Rutler.[9] As an important venue for media, and with its proximity to the center of New York City, the church often played host to rallies, such as the starting point for John Cardinal O'Connor's anti-abortion march from this church.[1]

Buildings

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The church was built during 1873–1877 to the designs of Lawrence J. O'Connor.[1][2] Builders were Moran and Armstrong and Michael J. Newman. The basement was completed and used as a chapel, which was dedicated by John Cardinal McCloskey on January 11, 1874. A Celtic cross crowned the gable. The sanctuary contained a chancel window depicting St. Agnes. The completed church was dedicated by Cardinal McCloskey on May 6, 1877.[5]

The parish constructed a four-story brick and stone rectory and sacristy in 1904 to designs by Jeremiah O'Rourke & Sons of Newark, New Jersey, for $31,000 ($1,100,000 in current dollars).[10]

The church has suffered two fires. The first, which badly damaged it but left the towers standing, occurred on December 24, 1898. The following February, plans were filed to rebuild it and add a semi-octagonal chancel to the rear, at the expected total cost of $40,000 ($1,500,000 in current dollars).[11] The second fire, on December 10, 1992, left only the outside walls and the towers standing,[12] costing $2 million for demolition ($4.3 million current) and $6 million for the new building ($13 million current).[9] The church was rebuilt to designs by the firm Acheson, Thornton, Doyle, and opened in 1998. The new church was modeled after the Church of the Gesù in Rome, but with the original towers from O'Connor's church flanking the new building.[1][2][13]

The altar triptych in the rebuilt church was painted by Sean Delonas.[14] St. Agnes Boys High School, located behind the church on East 44th Street, relocated to the Upper West Side until closing in 2013.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "St. Agnes Church". NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d "Official Church Website". Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  3. ^ The World Almanac 1892 and Book of Facts. New York: Press Publishing. 1892. p. 390.
  4. ^ Lafort, Remigius, censor (1914). The Catholic Church in the United States of America Vol. 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. New York City: The Catholic Editing Company. pp. 307–308.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b Shea, John Gilmary, ed. (1878). The Catholic Churches of New York City. New York: Lawrence G. Goulding & Co. p. 106.
  6. ^ "2,500 at Last Mass in St. Gabriel's: Formal Closing of 73-year-old Edifice Near Site of New Tunnel is Marked". The New York Times. January 16, 1939. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  7. ^ Inventory of the Church Archives in New York City: The Roman Catholic Church Archdiocese of New York. Vol. 2. New York City: United States Work Projects Administration Historical Records Survey. 1941. p. 65. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  8. ^ Chicoine, Christie L. (August 6, 2014). "Bishop O'Hara: His Broadcaster's Voice is Paired With a Pastor's Heart". Catholic New York.
  9. ^ a b Ruse, Austin (Summer 1998). "Risen From the Ashes". Sursum Corda. Archived from the original on February 13, 2002.
  10. ^ Office for Metropolitan History. "Permit Search". Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  11. ^ Staff (February 22, 1899). "St. Agnes's Church to be Rebuilt". The New York Times.
  12. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (December 11, 1992). "Fire Guts St. Agnes, a Historic Manhattan Church". The New York Times.
  13. ^ Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-231-12543-7.
  14. ^ Landman, Beth; Mitchell, Deborah (February 16, 1998). "Delonas's Saints of Circumstance". New York Magazine.
  15. ^ "St. Agnes School Sold to Condo Developer". West Side Rag. December 4, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
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40°45′6.57″N 73°58′28.08″W / 40.7518250°N 73.9744667°W / 40.7518250; -73.9744667

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