St. Patrick's Cathedral
631 5th Avenue | Midtown | built 1910
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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.
- 1810
Jesuits buy the future cathedral block and open a college there, north of the city
In March 1810 the Rev. Anthony Kohlmann bought the block between Fifth and Madison Avenues and 50th and 51st Streets, then well north of the built-up city. The Jesuits set up a college there, and fitted an old house on the lot with a chapel to St. Ignatius. They sold the land to the Diocese of New York in 1813, and the school closed the following year. This was an earlier use of the lot, decades before the cathedral rose on it.
“The Jesuit community built a college on the site, which at the time was north of New York City proper.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1858
Archbishop John Hughes lays the cornerstone for the new cathedral before a crowd of 100,000
Archbishop Hughes laid the cornerstone on August 15, 1858, in front of an estimated 100,000 spectators. James Renwick Jr. had designed the Gothic cathedral after studying European models, including the unfinished Cologne Cathedral, and 103 subscribers had each pledged $1,000. Money ran out and Hughes suspended work in August 1860, and the Civil War kept construction from resuming for several years.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1878
A month-long fair for the unfinished cathedral draws about 250,000 visitors
On October 22, 1878, a fundraising fair opened to help pay for the cathedral. It ran for 36 nights, with exhibits from 45 parishes of the archdiocese, and about 250,000 people came before it closed on November 30. Organizers hoped to raise $200,000, but the fair netted $173,000.
“The fair ran for 36 nights and attracted about 250,000 total visitors when it closed on November 30.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1879
The cathedral is dedicated with 35 bishops and six archbishops in attendance
St. Patrick's Cathedral was dedicated on May 25, 1879, and the press was generally positive. Most of the money had come from parishioners across the archdiocese, who were mainly poor Irish immigrants. The cathedral and Temple Emanu-El were the first non-Protestant houses of worship in the midtown stretch of Fifth Avenue, which was then far from the built-up city.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1888
The spires are finished and, at 329.5 feet, become the tallest structures in New York
A lack of money had left the cathedral without spires when it opened, and Renwick filed plans for them in 1885. The last stones went up in October 1888, and the spires, at 329.5 feet, were the tallest structures in the city until the New York World Building passed them within a year. Funding shortages also meant a temporary plaster-and-wood ceiling went in instead of Renwick's planned masonry one, and it has never been replaced.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1906
Charles T. Mathews's French Gothic Lady Chapel is added at the cathedral's east end
The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates the Lady Chapel to 1906 and names Charles T. Mathews as its architect. It sits east of the main cathedral, topped by a delicate spire, and carries French Gothic detail. James Renwick Jr.'s rectory and cardinal's residence stand to its north and south, facing Madison Avenue.
“In 1906, the very handsome Lady Chapel was added to the east…”
- 1910
The cathedral is consecrated after its $800,000 debt is paid off
Archbishop John Murphy Farley consecrated the cathedral on October 5, 1910, after its debt of $800,000 was cleared in the first half of that year. The Lady chapel behind the apse, designed by Charles T. Mathews, had been funded in part by a $200,000 bequest from Margaret A. Kelly. Its first Mass was held at Christmas 1906.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1915
Detectives disguised as scrubwomen and worshipers seize an anarchist about to light a bomb fuse during Mass
On March 2, 1915, police were waiting inside the cathedral after patrolman Emilio Polignani, who had infiltrated anarchist circles, warned them of a plot. Detectives posed as women worshipers, scrubwomen and ushers. When Frank Abarno prepared to light the fuse, one of them seized his arm and another pinched out the fuse, and the Mass went on uninterrupted. Abarno and his accomplice Carbone, arrested later, each served six years in Sing Sing.
Source: The Bowery Boys
- 1920
F. Scott Fitzgerald marries Zelda Sayre in the cathedral's rectory
On April 3, 1920, the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre were married in the rectory of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The wedding came just over a week after the publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, on March 26. The couple spent their honeymoon at the Biltmore Hotel.
Source: sc.edu
- 1966
The cathedral is designated a city landmark in 1966, and its block a National Historic Landmark in 1976
The Landmarks Preservation Commission considered the cathedral in early 1966 and designated it a city landmark later that year. An interior restoration began in 1972 under Cardinal Terence Cooke, cost $800,000 and finished in April 1973 while the building stayed open. In 1976 the cathedral close, meaning every structure on its block, was added to the National Register and named a National Historic Landmark.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
ACT UP protesters disrupt Mass during a 4,500-person Stop the Church demonstration
ACT UP, the AIDS advocacy group, led a demonstration of about 4,500 people outside the cathedral on December 10, 1989, as part of its Stop the Church campaign. Roughly 130 protesters got inside and disrupted the service, forcing Cardinal John O'Connor to abandon his sermon.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Pierre Toussaint is interred in the cathedral crypt, its only layperson at the time
In 1990 Pierre Toussaint was interred in the crypt beneath the high altar, where the archbishops of New York are entombed. At the time of his interment he was the only Catholic layperson buried at the cathedral. The crypt is reached through doors behind the high altar.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
A $177 million restoration of the cathedral is completed days before Pope Francis visits
After chunks of rock began falling from the facade, Cardinal Edward Egan planned a renovation in 2006, and the work ran from 2012 to 2015 at a cost of $177 million. It included cleaning the exterior marble, repairing stained glass, repainting the ceiling and replacing floors and steps. The project was completed by September 17, 2015, the week before Pope Francis visited.
Source: Wikipedia
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