Church of the Most Holy Redeemer

206 East 4th Street | also 173 East 3rd Street | East Village | built 1900

Open on the map5 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. 1852

    November 28

    Architect Walsh completes a limestone church for Little Germany's Catholics

    Construction begins on October 29, 1850, and finishes with the dedication of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer on November 28, 1852. Architect Walsh designs a limestone Baroque-Romanesque church with cathedral-like proportions and a 250-foot bell tower, built at a cost of $65,600 to replace the Redemptorist parish's original 1844 frame building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1883

    February 22

    A funeral mourns fourteen schoolgirls killed in a stairway panic

    On February 22, 1883, the church holds a group funeral for fourteen schoolgirls who died eight days earlier, when a small fire in a school closet set off a panicked stampede and a stairway banister collapsed. The tragedy devastates the German Catholic community that fills the largely German-language parish.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1897

    October 27

    A police officer is shot dead confronting a burglar inside the church

    On October 27, 1897, Officer Frederick Smith is fatally shot while confronting Fritz Meyer, who is attempting to burgle the church. The break-in follows an earlier 1882 theft by Peter Scholl and precedes another attempted theft of a jeweled statue in 1908, underscoring the risks facing a well-appointed parish in a crowded tenement district.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1913

    Architect Paul Schultz shortens the bell tower in a facade update

    In 1913, architect Paul Schultz modernizes the church's facade and reduces the height of its original 250-foot tower, at a cost of about $50,000. By this time the congregation numbers roughly 2,000, well down from its peak, as German residents begin moving away from the Lower East Side.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2018

    The Redemptorist order ends its ministry at the parish

    The Redemptorist Fathers, who founded the parish in 1844, withdraw from the church in 2018, after which Archdiocese of New York priests take over its ministry. The parish, merged since 2014 with the Church of the Nativity as Most Holy Redeemer/Nativity Parish, now serves a largely Spanish-speaking congregation.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 572 buildings with stories in East Village