Old St. Patrick's Rectory

263 Mulberry Street | Nolita | built 1900

Open on the map4 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. 1842

    A Greek Revival residence for Bishop John Hughes is built across Mulberry Street from the old cathedral

    The five-bay red brick residence with brownstone trim spans two wide lots opposite the first St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was apparently built during the term of John Hughes, who became bishop in 1842, and it housed the bishop along with as many as seven parish priests. A mansard roof was possibly added during repairs after the cathedral burned in 1866.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1875

    April

    John McCloskey receives his cardinal's hat in the old rectory's parlor

    Archbishop John McCloskey left the Mulberry Street rectory by 1875 and moved to a mansion on Madison Avenue, where on March 16 he got a telegram saying he had been made America's first cardinal. A month later, in the old rectory's parlor, he received the cardinal's hat, and he repeated the ceremony across the street in the cathedral.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1909

    A Black Hand letter to the rectory threatens to blow up the church before Petrosino's funeral

    Police Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino was shot dead in Italy in 1909, and his funeral was held at Old St. Patrick's. As the day approached, Father John Kearney received a letter at the rectory from the Black Hand threatening to bomb the church. The Times reported that he read it and said calmly that if the church was destroyed, he would go with it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1923

    April 11

    Monsignor John F. Kearney dies in the rectory after more than fifty years of serving Old St. Patrick's

    Kearney, born on Broome Street in 1839, lived in the rectory from 1866 and led the parish through the shift from Irish to Italian parishioners, reaching out in Italian. By 1916 he had marked fifty years of living there and serving Old St. Patrick's, and he held the title of Monsignor. On the evening of April 11, 1923, he called in the four priests who shared the house, blessed them and died minutes later. An estimated 10,000 mourners attended his funeral.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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