St. Agnes Church

143 East 43rd Street | Turtle Bay | built 1920

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1877

    May 6

    Lawrence J. O'Connor's Gothic Revival church is dedicated

    The parish organized in 1873 to serve Italian laborers near the new Grand Central Depot, and Cardinal McCloskey dedicated its basement chapel the following year. The completed Gothic Revival church, designed by architect Lawrence J. O'Connor, was dedicated on May 6, 1877, with Rev. Harry Cummings Macdowell as the parish's first pastor.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1898

    December 24

    A Christmas Eve fire badly damages St. Agnes but leaves its towers standing

    On December 24, 1898, a fire badly damaged the Church of St. Agnes on East 43rd Street, though its towers remained standing. In February 1899 plans were filed to rebuild the church and add a semi-octagonal chancel at the rear, at an expected total cost of $40,000.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1982

    Mayor Koch gives East 43rd Street the honorary name of Fulton Sheen beside St. Agnes

    In 1982 Mayor Edward Koch gave East 43rd Street between Lexington and Third avenues a second name honoring Fulton Sheen. Sheen's radio and television sermons, including The Catholic Hour and Life Is Worth Living, were made in a studio in the old St. Agnes church and at the Adelphi Theater uptown.

    Source: Forgotten New York

  4. 1992

    December 10

    A fire guts St. Agnes, leaving only its outer walls and towers standing

    The church had already burned once, in December 1898, but a second fire on December 10, 1992, was far more devastating. It left only the outside walls and the two towers of O'Connor's building standing.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1998

    The parish rebuilds the interior in Baroque Revival style

    After the 1992 fire, the parish rebuilt the church to designs by Acheson, Thornton, Doyle, and it reopened in 1998. The new interior was modeled on the Church of the Gesù in Rome rather than the original Gothic Revival scheme, while O'Connor's original towers still flank the building.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2016

    July 1

    Opus Dei takes over pastoral care of the parish

    Cardinal Timothy Dolan invited the Catholic prelature Opus Dei to assume pastoral care and administration of St. Agnes, a parish long associated with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's radio and television broadcasts. Father Michael Barrett began as pastor on July 1, 2016, marking the change in leadership.

    Source: ncregister.com

Further reading

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