Church of the Most Holy Redeemer

173 East 3rd Street | East Village | built 1900

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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. 1852

    November 28

    The Most Holy Redeemer church, with a 250-foot tower, is dedicated

    Parishioners broke ground in October 1850 beside their temporary frame church, and the new building was dedicated on November 28, 1852. An architect recorded only as Walsh designed a limestone-faced Baroque Romanesque church of cathedral-like scale, topped by a 250-foot clock and bell tower. The New York Herald put the cost at $65,600, and the congregation was almost entirely German immigrants.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1883

    February 22

    Thousands crowd the streets for the group funeral of girls killed in a school stampede

    A small closet fire at the parish school caused a panic and a stair-banister collapse that killed 14 girls. At their joint funeral on February 22, 1883, the church was full and thousands more filled East 3rd Street, Avenue A and First Avenue. The sanctuary was draped in black and white crepe. One poor mother learned her ten-year-old daughter would lie in an unmarked potter's field grave.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1897

    October 27

    A burglar hiding in the church shoots Officer Frederick Smith dead

    Fritz Meyer, called Dutch Pete, hid in the church until it was locked and began breaking into the poor boxes, tripping a new electric burglar alarm in the rectory. When Officer Frederick Smith cornered him, Meyer fired and killed him. Onlookers outside shouted for Meyer to be hanged, and police fought to protect him; he was sentenced to death that November. Though Smith was Lutheran, his funeral was held in the church on October 30.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1904

    April 24

    The 60th anniversary mass uses the first all-Gregorian program in the country

    Soon after his coronation, Pope Pius X decreed that Gregorian chant should take the place of the classical and baroque styles Catholic churches had favored. The Sun reported that the parish's 60th anniversary mass on April 24, 1904 was the first complete Gregorian program used in the United States since the pope's reform.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1908

    June 4

    A homeless ironworker hides in the church to steal a jeweled crown

    Rene Baci, a jobless French ironworker, hid in the church, as a burglar had eleven years before, and also overlooked the burglar alarms. He wanted a diamond-studded crown and jeweled clothing on a statue of Christ, valued at $31,000. A police captain and two detectives struggled to subdue him. He explained to police that the church had more money than he did and he needed it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1913

    September

    Paul Schultz modernizes the church and cuts down its tower

    Architect Paul Schultz was hired in 1913 to modernize the church, stripping much ornament from the facade and sharply reducing the tower. The $50,000 work finished in September. The congregation was estimated at about 2,000 and shrinking. Over the century the German population moved to Yorkville, and Spanish-speaking Catholics eventually became the majority.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 2025

    December

    The church closes after parish mergers and a change of clergy

    The parish was an offshoot of St. Nicholas' Church, the city's first German Catholic parish. The Church of the Nativity on Second Avenue was folded into it in 2014, and the Redemptorist order pulled out in 2018, leaving archdiocesan priests in charge. The church closed in December 2025.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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