St. Jerome's Church and School
222 Alexander Avenue | also 230 Alexander Avenue | Mott Haven | built 1900
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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.
- 1869
Rev. John J. Hughes founds St. Jerome's parish for Irish and German immigrants
The Rev. John J. Hughes founded the Roman Catholic parish of St. Jerome in 1869 for the Irish and German immigrants of the area. By 1892 it was listed at its present site at Alexander Avenue and East 137th Street, and in 1897 the parish of St. Luke's was split off from it. Later pastors included Father Patrick Tandy, who served until 1901.
“The parish was established in 1869 by the Rev. John J. Hughes to serve Irish and German immigrants.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1871
St. Jerome's congregation builds a Victorian Gothic school on the 137th Street corner
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Two years after it was founded in 1869, the congregation of St. Jerome's put up its school at 222 Alexander Avenue. The Landmarks Preservation Commission described it in 1969 as Victorian Gothic, with two low towers, pointed-arch windows, quatrefoils near the tower tops and a triple doorway under stone arches with pointed drip moldings. Paired arched windows break up its long side on East 137th Street.
“The congregation of St. Jerome's Roman Catholic Church was founded in 1869, and two years later, the present school was erected.”
- 1969
Landmarks report notes a once-Irish parish now worships largely in Spanish
The 1969 Mott Haven Historic District report observed that the church Dehli & Howard designed in 1898 drew on the Italian Renaissance with hints of Hispanic models. The congregation that built it had been mostly Irish, the Commission wrote, but by 1969 it was largely Spanish speaking, so the style had become especially fitting. The church stands on the corner of Alexander Avenue and 138th Street.
“Although the then primarily Irish congregation could not have possibly foreseen it, the present congregation is largely Spanish speaking…”
- 2013
St. Jerome's School closes after generations of Ursuline and Christian Brothers teachers
Ursuline sisters taught for many years in the school building at 222 Alexander Avenue, which dates from 1871. Starting in 1928, the older boys were taught by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and another building on East 137th Street, about 100 feet east, was bought that year for a boys' section. St. Jerome's School closed in 2013.
Source: Wikipedia
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