Church of Corpus Christi

535 West 121st Street | also 533 West 121st Street | Morningside Heights | built 1936

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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. 1907

    June 30

    Archbishop Farley dedicates the parish's first church on this site, and its school opens that September

    Corpus Christi parish, founded in 1906 under its first pastor, Father John H. Dooley, laid the cornerstone of its first church, school and rectory on November 11, 1906. Archbishop John Farley dedicated the new church on June 30, 1907. The parish school opened that September with two Sisters of Charity, Mary Adrian Murphy and Mary Zelia Burns, and one lay teacher. These original buildings were later replaced by the present ones.

    Source: Internet Archive

  2. 1934

    Father George Barry Ford becomes pastor and keeps his post as Columbia's Catholic chaplain

    After the death of the founding pastor, Father Dooley, in 1934, Father George Barry Ford took over Corpus Christi. Ford had been the Catholic chaplain at nearby Columbia University and kept that job. He went on to start the music and liturgy programs for which the parish became known.

    Source: Internet Archive

  3. 1936

    October 25

    The present church, school and convent are dedicated, and Dominican Sisters join the school

    Corpus Christi's present church, school and convent were dedicated together on October 25, 1936, during Father Ford's pastorate. That year Ford also welcomed the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, to bring a progressive education to the parish's children. Thomas Merton later wrote that the church had a seventeenth-century Oratorian character with an American colonial tinge of simplicity.

    Source: Internet Archive

  4. 1938

    Thomas Merton rings the rectory bell at night and tells Father Ford he wants to become a Catholic

    After first attending Mass at Corpus Christi, the Columbia student Thomas Merton walked nine blocks one night to the rectory, convinced he was meant to be Catholic. A maid answered and said the priest was out, but as Merton left he met Father Ford coming home. Ford took him into the little parlor by the door, and Merton told him he wanted to become a Catholic.

    Source: georgiabulletin.org

  5. 1938

    November 16

    Thomas Merton is baptized at Corpus Christi and receives first communion

    Thomas Merton took instruction from Father Ford and was baptized at Corpus Christi on November 16, 1938, receiving first communion. Merton wrote occasionally about Corpus Christi afterward, praising its approach to liturgy and music. A columnist in the Georgia Bulletin says the decision changed Merton's life and the lives of thousands of others.

    Source: georgiabulletin.org

  6. 1956

    A Holtkamp organ is installed in the church known for its congregational singing

    Father Ford made music a hallmark of Corpus Christi, hiring William McDonald as music director and starting a full program of choral and congregational singing. The church's acoustics suited the program. In 1956 a Holtkamp organ was installed, and the parish's liturgical and musical traditions continue today.

    Source: Internet Archive

  7. 1964

    Thomas Merton returns to Corpus Christi to celebrate Mass

    In 1964 the writer Thomas Merton, on a short visit to New York City, came back to Corpus Christi, the church where he had been baptized in 1938, and celebrated Mass there. The parish is noted for its tradition of liturgical renewal, and it was one of the earliest in the country to invite the congregation to respond aloud at Mass.

    Source: georgiabulletin.org

  8. 2011

    October

    Pastor and parishioners resist naming a block of West 121st Street for former pupil George Carlin

    In October 2011 a petition to rename a block of West 121st Street for George Carlin, who attended Corpus Christi's school and church through eighth grade, met opposition from members of the parish and school. Pastor Raymond Rafferty said the comedian's early routines mocked the parish and its priests. The Times noted that, by Carlin's memoir, the nuns had defended his 'Seven Words' routine to his mother, and a classmate said he never forgot the neighborhood.

    Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

  9. 2020

    The Archdiocese closes Corpus Christi School

    The Archdiocese of New York shut Corpus Christi School in 2020, pointing to pandemic risks and very low enrollment. The school had opened in September 1907 under the Sisters of Charity, and the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa had joined it in 1936.

    “Corpus Christi School was closed in 2020 by the Archdiocese of New York citing the dangers of the COVID pandemic and very low school enrollment.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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