Old St. Patrick's Convent and Girls' School

32 Prince Street | also 235 Mott Street | Nolita | built 1900

Open on the map5 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1826

    The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum opens its Federal-style home at Prince and Mott streets

    After C. Heeney gave the land in 1824, the diocese built a permanent orphanage here, finishing it in 1826. The Sisters of Charity had run the asylum since 1817 from a humbler building nearby, starting with 30 children. Its brick front is raised on a basement and carries a fine doorway with a leaded fanlight and Ionic columns. By January 1833 the sisters were looking after 140 orphans.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1837

    November 20

    Aldermen spare the orphan asylum from a Centre Street extension

    A plan to push Centre Street north to the Bowery would have run straight through the asylum. On November 20, 1837, the Board of Assistant Aldermen rejected it. Its minutes noted that Heeney's gift of the land required it to serve as an orphan asylum, so demolition would return the property to his heirs and leave the institution with nothing. By March 1838 it held nearly 200 children.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1859

    June 15

    A Times visitor counts 320 girls at the Prince Street asylum

    By 1851 the boys had moved to a new asylum on Fifth Avenue at 51st Street, leaving Prince Street for girls only. On June 15, 1859, a New York Times reporter toured it and described four schoolrooms, two dormitories sleeping fifty each, an infirmary with no patients and a chapel on the Mott Street side. About 320 girls aged four to thirteen lived there in the care of the Sisters of Charity.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1896

    September 7

    A burst kitchen pipe explodes and starts a fire, and the convent's nuns stay put

    In 1886 the old orphanage was renovated as St. Patrick's Convent and Girls' School. Early on September 7, 1896, a kitchen pipe burst, blowing a hole in the ceiling, flooding the room and starting a fire. A policeman heard the blast and sent for the fire department, but pails of water put the fire out first. The Times reported that fourteen nuns were in the building, and only the Superior left her room.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2010

    June

    Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral School closes after generations of neighborhood children

    The school admitted boys by the early twentieth century, and filmmaker Martin Scorsese was among its mid-century students. Its pupils later spoke English, Spanish and Chinese at home. Enrollment fell to 129 in 2009, and the Archdiocese closed the school in June 2010. In 2014 Time Equities bought the landmark for $32 million and converted it into homes, gutting the interior, which was not protected.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 41 buildings with stories in Nolita