Fordham University Church

425 East Fordham Road | also 441 East Fordham Road | Belmont | built 1922

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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. 1845

    A Gothic chapel rises to serve the seminary and the people of Old Fordham Village

    The church that is now Fordham's main place of worship went up in 1845 as a seminary chapel and a parish church for the nearby community of Old Fordham Village. Its stained glass windows were a gift from King Louis Philippe of France and are linked to a workshop in Sevres; the six in the nave show the Four Evangelists, St. Peter and St. Paul.

    “…originally built in 1845 as a seminary chapel and parish church for the surrounding community of Old Fordham Village…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1859

    The Jesuits take over St. John's College and its church becomes the college's own

    In 1859 the Jesuits purchased the college at Rose Hill, then called St. John's College, and the former seminary church passed to the school. It later became the center of Fordham's campus ministry, with Our Lady's Chapel in its basement and satellite chapels in Keating Hall, Dealy Hall and Spillman Hall.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1929

    Architect Emile Perrot adds a transept and copper lantern to the old chapel

    William Rodrigue's 1845 church began as a plain chapel with no transept, built of rough hewn stone and dominated by a square tower with stepped corner buttresses and crocketed pinnacles. To make room for more worshippers, a large transept designed by Emile Perrot was added in 1928-29. Over the crossing sits an ornate copper lantern trimmed with small flying buttresses.

    “Originally the church was an austere chapel without a transept. In 1928-29, in order to increase its capacity, a large transept was added.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1943

    The church installs the old altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral

    In 1943 the church installed a new altar that came from St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. The altar had served the Manhattan cathedral for more than sixty years before it was moved to the Fordham campus.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1970

    August 18

    The city designates the Fordham chapel, once called Our Lady of Mercy, a landmark

    After a March 3, 1970 hearing at which five witnesses spoke in favor, including fine arts chair Irma B. Jaffe, and nobody spoke against, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the chapel on August 18, 1970. The commission praised the Gothic Revival church, formerly known as Our Lady of Mercy, which with St. John's Residence Hall frames Queen's Court, the old quad.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

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