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| photo by Alice Lum |
The Catholic Church in Manhattan got off to a rocky
start. During British rule Catholic
worship was prohibited by law. Then, in
1785, almost immediately after the British left, St. Peter’s Church was founded
and a Georgian-style church was built on Barclay Street—three years before the
Washington took office.
The Roman Catholic population continued to grow and on April
8, 1808 the diocese of New York was created (covering all of New York State,
New Jersey, and several Long Island counties).
Within the year French-born architect Joseph-Francois Mangin was
commissioned to design the first Catholic cathedral in American—St. Patrick’s. The architect had recently completed the
design of City Hall in conjunction with John McComb, Jr. The completed church on Mulberry Street near
the corner of Prince Street was dedicated six years later on May 14, 1815.
But the presence of a cathedral and a bishop did not mean
that Catholics were warmly accepted. In
1834 the Board of Trustees resolved “that a wall shall be built around the
Cathedral and churchyard" to protect both the graveyard and the church from
rioters bent on destruction. The decision
proved to be wise move. Ten years later the
church was besieged by a violent mob of anti-Catholic and anti-Irish rabble
intent on torching the cathedral. The
bishop at the time was the dynamic 47-year old John Joseph Hughes.
He assembled parishioners and members of the Ancient Order of
Hibernians behind the wall. The
defenders punched holes in the wall for their muskets and fought back the mob
which was chanting “paddies of the Pope.”
Although the Catholics held off the rabble; several of the fine windows
of the church were smashed in the melee.
Bishop Hughes fired off a letter to Mayor James Harper threatening “Should
one Catholic come to harm, or should one Catholic business be molested, we
shall turn this city into a second Moscow," referring to Napoleon's
somewhat recent siege of that city.
The Irish-born Hughes had been made bishop in 1842,
succeeding John Dubois. It was
apparently during his term that the imposing Rectory was constructed directly
across from the Cathedral. Five bays
wide, the handsome Greek Revival structure encompassed two wide building
lots. Constructed of red brick with
brownstone trim, it was home not only to the bishop; but to the parish priests—as
many of seven at some times.
John J. Hughes was elevated to Archbishop when New York was
made an Archdiocese by Pope Pius IX in 1850.
At the time St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the largest church in Manhattan. But Hughes had bigger plans. In 1852 the Archdiocese purchased the block
of land far north on Fifth Avenue at 50th Street. The plot was so far removed from the
established city that critics called the project “Hughes’ Folly.” The cornerstone was laid on August 15, 1858
and the immense white marble cathedral began rising.
Then, in 1861, Civil War broke out. One by one construction workers marched off
to war until eventually work on the Cathedral stopped completely. Three years later Archbishop John Hughes
died, never to see his magnificent church completed.
John Cardinal McCloskey moved into the Rectory as the new
Archbishop. Although the new St. Patrick’s
Cathedral would not be officially dedicated until 1879; Archbishop McCloskey
left the old Mulberry Street rectory by 1875 and took up residence in the
Archbishop’s mansion at No. 218 Madison Avenue.
It was there, on March 16, 1875, that he received the telegram informing
him that he had been elevated to cardinal—the first in America.
A month later, John McCloskey received his cardinal’s hat in
the parlor of the old Rectory. Later he
would repeat the ceremony across the street in the old Cathedral.
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| The Rectory in 1914 looked exactly as it does today -- The Catholic church in the United States of America, 1914 (copyright expired) |
After the doors to the new Cathedral opened in 1879, the old
Mulberry Street Cathedral became a parish church on May 25. By now Father John F. Kearney had lived in
the Rectory for 13 years. Kearney was
born on Broome Street in 1839. As work
had ground to a stop on the new Cathedral during the war, Kearney was studying
for the priesthood in Emmittsburg, Maryland.
He became an assistant priest in the Old Cathedral in 1864—two years
before the church burned nearly to the ground.
(It was possibly during the reconstruction of the old cathedral that the
handsome mansard roof was added to the old Greek Revival Rectory.)
Now, the Very Rev. William Quinn who had been vicar-general
at the old Cathedral moved to the new St. Patrick’s; leaving Father Kearney as
rector of the Mulberry Street church.
The priest took over the parish at a time of noticeable change in the
neighborhood. While the original
parishioners in the cathedral had been almost exclusively Irish; now waves of
Italian immigrants filled the streets.
Later Father Kearney would remember “The changes in
population came on gradually, but I should say that in 1873 the first large Italian
immigration began. There had been hard
times in Italy and thousands came over here in search of work. Again in 1882 there was an especially large
number of them.” Because he spoke
Italian, Father Kearney was able to reach out to the Italian Catholic
population.
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| The Victorian mansard was possibly added during the reconstruction of the damaged Cathedral. photo by Alice Lum |
In the first years of the 20th century New York
City was plagued with anarchist terrorists, including the Black Hand. The Italian group was responsible for
assassinations, extortion and bombings.
Police Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino was working in Italy in 1909 when he
was gunned down by the Black Hand. His
body was returned to New York and his funeral took place in Old St. Patrick’s.
As the day of the ceremony neared, Father Kearney received a
letter at the Rectory. It was from the
Black Hand and threatened to blow up the church. According to The New York Times, “He read the
letter and then calmly said, “If the church goes—I go with it.”
By 1916, as he celebrated 50 years of living in the
Rectory and serving old St. Patrick’s, Kearney held the title of
Monsignor. For another seven years he
would crisscross Mulberry Street, going back and forth from the Rectory to the
old cathedral. Then on the evening of April
11, 1923 the Right Rev. Mgr. John F. Kearney called into his room the four
parish priests who shared the Rectory.
The following day The New York Times reported “To them he gave his
blessing, and a few minutes later he died.”
An estimated 10,000 mourners were present at Mgr. Kearney’s
funeral.
The former Bishop’s residence and Rectory drew little
attention to itself over the years. In May
1939 when Old St. Patrick’s celebrated its 130th Anniversary, a “colorful
procession” started at the Rectory and wound around the streets before
returning to the old church. And in 1950
Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman chose the Rectory to despair over the failure
of continued peace after the end of World War II.
“Entrusted with this peace and the future of our youth we
have once again failed ourselves and them—beguiled, deceived, betrayed,
defeated by Communists, fellow travelers, apathetic and guileful people and
public servants.”
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| photo by Alice Lum |
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