Tuesday, January 30, 2007

A Request from The Society of St. Barbara

J.B. Powers, the brains behind the Society of St. Barbara, is planning a sequel to the delightful Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago, this time dealing with the oft-endangered churches of New York City. He writes, asking for reader input on the city's finest and most photogenic churches:

As I have mentioned, we are contemplating a publication of photographic history of the churches and chapels of Archdiocese of New York City. I have toured extensively in Manhattan and a bit in the Bronx, and have had numerous conversations with interested participants, but I think it would be fantastic to get some group interaction from the readers here. Here is a partial list:

1. Old St. Pat's
2. St. Malachy's
3. The original Manhattanvile College of the Sacred Heart (City College/Harlem). Is it still there?

4. Eglise de Notre Dame - 405 W. 114th
5. St. Catherine of Siena - 411 E. 68th
6. St. Francis de Sales - 135 E. 96th
7. St Francis Xavier - 30 W. 16th St.
8. St.-Jean-Baptiste- 184 E. 76th
9. St. Peter's - Barclay Street (?)
10. St. Thomas More - 65 E. 89th
11. Fordham Chapel
12. Our Lady of Pompei - 25 Carmine St.
13. Our Lady of the Rosary - 7 State Street
14. St. Vincent de Paul - 123 West 23rd St
15. St. Patrick's Cathedral
16. St Vincent Ferrer
17. St. Ignatius Loyola
18. St. Andrew's

So have at it: what 75 churches and chapels should be photographed for Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic New York?
A good start for a list. My own inclination would be to add:

19. St. John Nepomunck - in the early 60's,
20. Blessed Sacrament - West Side
21. The so-called German Cathedral - the Lower East Side.
22. Immaculate Conception - Alphabet City
23. The Church of Our Saviour - Park Avenue
24. Most Precious Blood - Astoria
25. St. Monica's - E. 80th St
26. Our Lady of Mount Carmel - E. 115th Street
27. Our Lady of Esperanza - Audubon Terrace

There are also a plethora of amazing churches of a massiveness and monumentality one seldom encounters in large American cities outside of Chicago down in Brooklyn, but their names and locations are unknown to me, sadly. I'm also told the architect of my favorite non-Gothic church in the city, Our Saviour's, did a larger version of this eclectic Romanesque-Deco-Renaissance extravaganza somewhere in the Outer Boroughs as well. Anyone know where to find these other unknown treasures?

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