Church of Notre Dame

405 West 114th Street | Morningside Heights | built 1910

Open on the map11 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. 1910

    October 2

    The Fathers of Mercy dedicate a grotto chapel to Our Lady of Lourdes

    The Fathers of Mercy, a French order of priests, established a grotto chapel at Morningside Drive and West 114th Street in 1910, built as a replica of the Lourdes grotto to serve French-speaking Catholics in the growing Morningside Heights neighborhood. Archbishop John Farley dedicated the chapel on October 2, 1910, the first phase of what became the Church of Notre Dame, designed by the firm Daus & Otto.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1913

    The parish's first leader affiliates the church with Lourdes, and spring water is sent directly

    While in France in 1913, the Rev. Maurice Reynauld, the church's first administrator, linked Notre Dame to the Marian sanctuary at Lourdes. The link let worshippers in New York gain the same spiritual benefits as those at Lourdes. From the parish's beginning, an arrangement with the Lourdes authorities sent water from the miraculous spring straight to the church, and it has been available since.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1914

    Cross & Cross enlarges the church in the style of a Paris landmark

    Starting in 1914 the firm Cross & Cross undertook a major expansion of the young parish, adding a French neoclassical facade with a pedimented portico and four fluted Corinthian columns modeled on the Church of the Madeleine in Paris. The work continued intermittently for more than a decade before the building reached its present form.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1926

    June 13

    Cardinal Charost of Rennes blesses more than a thousand people on the church steps

    On June 13, 1926, Cardinal Charost, Archbishop of Rennes, attended Mass at Notre Dame while the church was still under construction. A procession of priests led him from the rectory, and the Times reported that people lined his path to kiss his ring. After the service he gave the papal blessing on the steps, where over a thousand people knelt to receive it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1927

    April 24

    Sculptor Edmond Becker's marble altar is dedicated

    On April 24, 1927, the church dedicated a 27-foot white Carrara marble altar carved by sculptor Edmond Becker, its bronze bas-reliefs depicting the Annunciation and the crowning of the Virgin. The altar followed other embellishments to the young sanctuary, including a pipe organ dedicated two years earlier.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1928

    Construction stops for good, and the planned dome is never built

    Cross & Cross worked on the main body of the church from 1914 until 1928, when the work was stopped permanently. The architects had planned a large dome over the building, which would have given the church an outline closer to Soufflot's Pantheon in Paris, one of its models. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1967 report still lists the church as unfinished.

    “…continued from 1914 until 1928 when it was finally discontinued. If the architects had been able to realize their plans for a large dome…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 1932

    January 27

    A society wedding moves here from St. Patrick's as singer Renee Thornton marries Duke Fabio Carafa d'Andria

    The singer Renee Thornton and Duke Fabio Carafa d'Andria were to marry on January 27, 1932, at 4:30 in St. Patrick's Cathedral, but plans changed and the ceremony took place half an hour later at Notre Dame. The Times noted the oddity: Thornton, a convert, had her marriage to the conductor Richard Hageman annulled, while the duke had divorced a woman he wed in 1927. Baron Luigi Filippo Marincola was best man.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1936

    March 26

    The Notre Dame Study Club calls for racial justice

    On March 26, 1936, the parish's Notre Dame Study Club passed a resolution declaring that Black Americans were entitled to "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" and calling on Catholics to take an active interest in improving their spiritual and material welfare. It was reportedly the first stand of its kind taken by a Catholic parish group in the country.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  9. 1937

    The parish study club asks Catholic groups nationwide to help end lynching

    A year after its 1936 resolution on racial justice, the Notre Dame Study Club appealed to Catholic groups across the country, among them Holy Name Societies and study clubs, to join in the effort to end lynching. It also urged Senators Wagner and Copeland and all of New York's representatives to back anti-lynching legislation.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  10. 1967

    January 24

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the unfinished church as a city landmark

    At the commission's hearing on June 14, 1966, two witnesses spoke in favor and none against, and it designated the unfinished church on January 24, 1967. Its report praises the French neoclassical design, with a Greek cross plan and a pedimented portico on four Corinthian columns, and says the building gives a small site atop Morningside Heights a monumental presence.

    “…two witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  11. 1988

    Parishioners sue under church law to stop a plan to cut the marble altar from its backdrop

    The new pastor, J. Christopher Maloney, proposed in 1988 to cut Edmond Becker's marble altar away from the ornate reredos and move it eight feet toward the congregation. Parishioners sued under canon law, wrote to Pope John Paul II and urged the Department of Buildings to refuse a permit. Maloney said the church was only being brought up to date, while one protester compared the plan to sawing a painting in half.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 49 buildings with stories in Morningside Heights