Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
526 59th Street | also 550 59th Street, 545 60th Street, 5902 6th Avenue | Sunset Park | built 1931
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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.
- 1892
Bishop McDonnell founds a Sunset Park parish and the Redemptorists buy land for it
Bishop Charles Edward McDonnell established Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in November 1892, formed out of the Our Lady of Angels and St. Michael parishes. The Redemptorists bought land between 59th and 60th Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues, then a fairly rural area. The first Mass was said on April 2, 1893, Easter Sunday, in the Morse family house at 54th Street and 4th Avenue.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1894
A wooden church opens on Fifth Avenue and the Perpetual Help devotion begins
On January 14, 1894, Bishop McDonnell dedicated a wooden frame church for the parish, on Fifth Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets. The Redemptorists started the Perpetual Help devotion on May 6, 1894 by handing out prayer cards, and that December a copy of the icon, brought from Rome, was installed. The parish still holds the perpetual novena.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1903
The parish opens Saint Alphonsus School, later renamed Our Lady of Perpetual Help School
The parish elementary school opened on September 9, 1903, first under the name Saint Alphonsus School, on 6th Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets. In 1917 Bishop Charles E. McDonnell approved a change of name to Our Lady of Perpetual Help School. The school kept that name until 2016, 113 years after it opened.
“The elementary school originally opened on September 9, 1903 as Saint Alphonsus School. The name was changed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in 1917…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1907
Construction starts on the granite Romanesque church designed by Franz Joseph Untersee of Boston
Work on the present church began in 1907 to designs by Franz Joseph Untersee of Boston. The lower church opened for services two years later, and the upper church was completed in 1928. The Romanesque granite church has a limestone exterior and is a double chapel, with two floors of worship.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1969
Pope Paul VI raises the shrine to a minor basilica
Pope Paul VI raised Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the rank of minor basilica by a decree dated September 15, 1969. The public inauguration ceremony followed on November 1, 1969. Its size has since made it a venue for large diocesan services such as ordinations, and for big funerals of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2012
The Regina Opera Company moves into the parish school auditorium
The Regina Opera Company, a not-for-profit group, moved into the auditorium of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in 2012. The parish also leases space to a pre-k program and Lutheran Medical Center, and it runs a food pantry and an immigration services center.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy closes after nine years
The parish school, open for 113 years, closed in 2016, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy of Brooklyn took its place at once. The Diocese of Brooklyn announced that the academy would close for good in June 2025, citing a 36 percent fall in enrollment and financial constraints.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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