St. Peter's Church
22 Barclay Street | also 79 Church Street | Tribeca | built 1840
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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.
- 1785
Catholics are steered from Broad Street to a site outside the city for the first St. Peter's
When the city's small Catholic community planned its first church in 1785, it first looked at Broad Street, then the heart of town. City officials urged the organizers toward a site beyond the built-up area, at Barclay and Church Streets, and they accepted the move. That lot is where the present church stands. With only about 200 Catholics in New York, most of them poor, the project leaned on a $1,000 gift from King Charles III of Spain.
Source: harpers.org
- 1787
Pierre Toussaint, born in slavery in Haiti, arrives in New York and joins St. Peter's
Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian-born man who had been enslaved, reached New York in 1787 and joined the parish at St. Peter's. He became known for his piety and for his generosity toward the city's poor. The Catholic Church has since considered his cause for sainthood, and he is listed among the parish's notable members alongside Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1800
St. Peter's opens the first free Catholic school in New York State
In 1800 St. Peter's set up the first free Catholic school in New York State. Father William O'Brien, the parish's first pastor, is remembered for his service to New Yorkers during the yellow fever epidemics of 1795 and 1798. The original church on the lot was later replaced by the present granite building.
“In 1800 the first free Catholic school in New York State was established at St. Peter's.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1805
Elizabeth Ann Seton converts to Catholicism in the parish's earlier church
Elizabeth Ann Seton, later canonized as the first American-born saint, converted to Catholicism at St. Peter's parish on March 14, 1805. She worshipped in the congregation's original building on this site, built in 1785, more than three decades before the present Greek Revival church replaced it.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1806
A Christmas riot at the first St. Peter's leaves a city watchman dead
On Christmas Eve 1806 a nativist gang called the Highbinders, about 50 strong and made up of apprentices and propertyless journeyman butchers, mocked worshippers leaving midnight Mass at the original church. The harassment continued on Christmas Day, when parishioners and Irish immigrants armed themselves with clubs and stones to fight back. A watchman, Christian Luswanger, was killed, and only Irish participants were arrested.
Source: Untapped New York
- 1840
Parishioners complete a Greek Revival church with a six-column portico
St. Peter's parish, founded in 1785 as the first Catholic congregation in New York State, outgrew its original building and raised a new church on the same site. Architects John R. Haggerty and Thomas Thomas designed the Greek Revival temple, whose six granite columns were erected starting in 1836 and completed by 1840.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1841
Father Edward Sorin celebrates Mass before founding the University of Notre Dame
On September 13, 1841, Father Edward Sorin and six French brothers celebrated Mass at St. Peter's before traveling on to South Bend, Indiana. There they founded the University of Notre Dame, one of the country's leading Catholic universities today.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1900
A basement fire in 1900 threatens the church, which survives
A fire in the basement in 1900 endangered the Greek Revival building, and serious cracks in the facade followed in 1911, but the church survived both. By the 1890s it was surrounded by commercial buildings, and by the middle of the twentieth century many of its worshippers were office workers from the Wall Street area who dropped in on the way to work or at lunchtime.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1965
The city designates St. Peter's a landmark as the oldest site of Catholic worship in New York
On December 21, 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated St. Peter's Church a city landmark after an October hearing at which one witness spoke in favor and none against. The commission praised its smooth granite walls and six-column Ionic portico as an outstanding Greek Revival temple form. It also noted that the church stands on the site of New York City's first Roman Catholic church, built in 1786 and razed in 1836.
“…built on the site of the first Roman Catholic church…”
- 1994
St. Peter's begins an annual memorial service for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing victims
In 1993 a bomb in a truck went off in the parking garage under the World Trade Center, killing six people at once and injuring thousands. The church, half a block away, began holding a yearly memorial service for the victims in 1994.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2001
Firefighters lay Father Mychal Judge's body before the altar
On the morning of September 11, 2001, four firefighters carried the body of Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain, into St. Peter's after he was killed by falling debris in the North Tower. Father Kevin Smith blessed him and had the body laid on the marble floor before the altar, covering it with a stole from the sacristy and placing Judge's fire department shield on it. The firefighters set a candle on each side before leaving.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2001
The church shelters rescue workers after the World Trade Center attack
When the towers fell on September 11, 2001, landing gear from a hijacked jet tore through St. Peter's roof, and the body of FDNY chaplain Father Mychal Judge, killed in the North Tower, was carried inside. The church became a staging ground for rescue workers, and FEMA later used the sanctuary to store supplies.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- St. Peter's Church (Manhattan)Wikipedia
- St. Peter's Church - 22 Barclay StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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