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pinnacles at the upper façade. In September, pressure from Harlem residents, political
representatives, the Conservancy, and other advocates helped temporarily suspend
demolition. In December, Congressman Charles Rangel intervened to help secure a
brief inspection by Conservancy staff and our consultants, engineer Robert Silman and
architect Chuck DiSanto of Walter Melvin Architects. This consultation generated an
independent assessment of the building envelope and will help estimate costs of its
potential adaptive use. St. Thomas is eligible for National Registry status.
Downtown, the Conservancy advised a coalition of former parishioners and
neighborhood advocates working to save St. Brigid’s, the oldest surviving church built
by Irish immigrants to New York and among the oldest Catholic churches in the City.
Although the congregation has raised more than $100,000 toward the necessary
$250,000-$500,00 total repair, the Diocese closed the church pending redevelopment of
the site. The parishioners are still fighting.
In neighborhoods less pressured by redevelopment, we have made progress in
saving churches, such as Holy Innocents Church in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood.
We helped convince the Brooklyn-Queens Roman Catholic Diocese to allow the
congregation to pursue full National Register listing. We also awarded Holy Innocents
a Consulting Grant to fund a comprehensive conditions assessment.
If a substantial number of Catholic churches are closed or redeveloped, all New
York City neighborhoods and other denominations will be impacted. To address this,
in September the Conservancy called a “summit” meeting of leaders from local sister
organizations and the state historic preservation office. Participants agreed to complete
a survey of 100 Roman Catholic churches begun by the Conservancy. Participants also
agreed to proactively reach out to threatened parishes to encourage repairs, maintenance,
adaptive use, and marketing strategies.
While many historic Catholic churches are being closed, other denominations face
similar pressures and declining buildings. We will continue networking parishes and
alerting public officials, political representatives, preservation and neighborhood
advocates, and the media to help save these churches.
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We helped save Holy
Innocents Church (1),
a proto-modern
church in Brooklyn
designed by
skyscraper architects
Helmle Corbett and
constructed in 1923.
We are still lobbying
to save one of the
oldest Catholic
churches in the city,
St. Brigid’s (2), which
was built in 1848
with a sanctuary
attributed to
Patrick Keely.
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