St. Mary's Catholic Continuity on the Lower East Side

The American nation was not yet 50 years old when on May 14th, 1826,
Fr. Hatton Walsh, an Irish Augustinian, stood in the pulpit to face his
parishioners in a newly acquired Church on Sheriff Street, in NYC.

It was the 3rd Catholic Church in New York; 17 years after Old St.
Patrick's on Mott Street. The reason for its establishment was
compelling. St. Peter's, on Barclay Street (established 1785), and St.
Patrick's Old Cathedral (established
1809), were overflowing.

To accommodate the families now located east of the Bowery, the Rev.
John Power, Vicar General of the Diocese, approved the creation of a new
parish.

On Sheriff Street (now extinct) near Broome Street, a vacated
Presbyterian Church was purchased in April 1826. The building was a
small frame structure featuring a very large bell. 'Twas the first
Catholic Church bell in New York City, since 2 earlier Churches (St.
Peter's and St. Patrick's) were built in the Irish tradition; bells and
steeples were forbidden in Ireland by British tyranny.

On March 27th, 1827, the feast of the Annunciation with Bishop Dubois
presiding, the Church was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of
God.

Historically, St. Mary's was the first Church to be blessed by the Bishop,
there were only six Catholic priests in New York, and two were at St.
Mary's: Fr. Hatton Walsh and Fr. Timothy Muire, his assistant.

Even though St. Mary's ranks third as a parish foundation, it is the oldest,
complete church in the Diocese.

While the Catholic Churches in Lower New York continued to
grow and prosper as more and more Catholics arrived from foreign
lands, mostly from Ireland, latent antagonistic feelings - anti-Catholic,
anti-immigrant, inti-Irish - were beginning to surface. Protestant
propaganda began to arouse people to the "dangerous interests and
pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church". St. Mary's was one of the
first Catholic Churches to suffer from this bigotry.

On the morning of November 9th, 1831, St. Mary's Church was destroyed
by fire. Vandals and saboteurs had broken in, pillaged it, secured the
tongue of the bell, started a fire in three places, and burned the church
to the ground. Almost everything was destroyed with one exception; a
small iron safe which is still around to this day. There was nothing in it
when it was found and currently has no contents. (see image left)

Aroused, united and determined, the parishioners of St. Mary's, with many
of the outraged non-Catholic friends, mobilized to build a new Church.
Their efforts were somewhat dimmed by the death of Fr. Berry. Though
only 35 years old, the shock of the destruction of the Church he loved
so much "accelerated a premature death".

Under the new leadership of Pastor Fr. Timothy Muire, arrangements
were made with the trustees of the protestant church, located on the
corner of Grand and Pitt Streets, to celebrate Sunday masses there
temporarily until a new church could be erected.

On December 31, 1831, St. Mary's was able to purchase property on
Grand and Ridge Streets, which became the site of the new and present St.
Mary's Church. The cornerstone was laid April 30th, 1832. Soon after
the basement was completed (which is now called the Bingo Hall) served
as the first parish school for St. Mary's.

On December 23rd, a little more than one year after the destruction of
the original church, the first mass was celebrated in the basement of the
new St. Mary's Church.
St. Mary's Church 1867 (l)
St. Mary's Church 1960
Southbound Clinton and Grand Street 1942 (r)
History of St. Mary's Church
St. Mary's Church