St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine
7 State Street | also 8 State Street | Financial District | built 1793
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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.
- 1793
James Watson commissions a Federal-style mansion on State Street
Merchant and future U.S. Senator James Watson commissions architect John McComb Jr. to build a Federal-style mansion at 7 State Street, part of a fashionable row overlooking the harbor. The house later gains a curved, colonnaded portico added by a subsequent owner to follow the sweep of the street, and it survives today as the last mansion left from State Street's residential era.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1801
Elizabeth Bayley Seton lives in the house after her husband's business fails
Elizabeth Bayley Seton lives at 8 State Street, next door to the Watson mansion, from 1801 to 1803 after her husband William's import business collapses. She sails with him to Italy seeking a cure for his tuberculosis; he dies there, and Elizabeth later converts to Catholicism, founds the Sisters of Charity, and becomes the first native-born American saint.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1806
Moses Rogers buys the house and adds its curved portico
Merchant Moses Rogers buys the Watson mansion at 7 State Street in 1806, joins it with the house next door, and adds the curved, colonnaded portico that still distinguishes it, reportedly built from the masts of the merchant fleet he was converting to steam power. The house remains a private residence for decades more before its later religious use.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1840
Lake-boat lines keep offices at 8 State Street, which also operates as the Eight South Street Hotel
By 1840 an earlier building at 8 State Street, where Elizabeth Seton had lived from 1801 to 1803 and where the church now stands, holds the offices of several transportation companies, including the lake-boat lines to Hammondsport, Ithaca and Seneca Falls. It also serves as the Eight South Street Hotel.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1870
The Catholic Church acquires the Watson House for a dollar
The Catholic Church acquires the former Watson mansion at 7 State Street for a token payment of one dollar in 1870, through the efforts of Irish immigrant advocate Charlotte Grace O'Brien. The house becomes home to the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, which shelters and protects young Irish immigrant women arriving alone in New York from exploitation and trafficking.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1886
St. Peter's Parish is divided to create the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary
In 1886 St. Peter's Parish is divided, and some 1,500 Catholics in Lower Manhattan and on the harbor islands become the new Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, by direction of Cardinal McCloskey. The new parish grows out of the immigrant mission that Charlotte Grace O'Brien had inspired.
Source: spcolr.org
- 1897
The New York Times describes the old mansion's grand salon as a chapel
The mission occupies two State Street buildings, 8 State and the Watson House at 7 State, which hold a reading room, offices and temporary rooms for immigrant girls. An 1897 New York Times article reports that the grand salon of the old mansion has been turned into a chapel.
Source: spcolr.org
- 1912
The mission has aided tens of thousands of immigrant girls by the time the Titanic sinks
By 1912 the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary at 7 State Street has assisted more than 65,000 girls since its founding, meeting immigrant ships at the harbor to steer young women away from traffickers. That April, mission workers are among those receiving steerage survivors of the Titanic disaster as they arrive in New York.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1965
Cardinal Spellman dedicates the new church on the site of Seton's former home
Francis Cardinal Spellman dedicates the shrine on September 8, 1965. The architects Walter Knight Sturges and Joseph Sanford Shanley, a descendant of Mother Seton, designed the church for the 8 State Street site, where the deteriorated house had been demolished, in a Federal and Georgian style to suit the Watson House next door. A marble statue of Seton by Robert E. Gaspari stands above the entrance.
Source: spcolr.org
- 1965
The Landmarks Commission designates the Watson House, the last of State Street's town houses
In 1965 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the James Watson House, calling it significant as the last of the elegant town houses that once lined State Street. The commission singles out the curved portico added in 1806, whose upper columns are believed to have been made from ships' masts. The house had just been restored by Shanley & Sturges, who returned it to its original look using an 1859 print.
“…significant as the last of the row of elegant town houses which once lined State Street ... restored in 1965, architect Shanley & Sturges…”
- 2010
A facade restoration strips 17 coats of paint to find the Watson House's original colors
In spring 2010 Easton Architects begins restoring the facade of the Watson House, the last surviving Federal-period residence in the Financial District. Workers remove seventeen coats of paint from the wooden trim to learn the original colors. The work brings the exterior roughly back to the look Moses Rogers gave it in his 1806 alteration.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2023
The Sisters of Life become custodians of the church and its buildings
In April 2023 the Sisters of Life become the custodians of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and its facilities. The parish had been merged back into St. Peter's in 2015. The church houses the Seton Shrine, next to the Watson House where the mission once sheltered Irish immigrant girls.
Source: spcolr.org
Further reading
- Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley SetonWikipedia
- 7 State Street - The James B. Watson / Elizabeth Seton HouseDaytonian in Manhattan
- The last house left on State Street’s mansion rowEphemeral New York
- A rich New Yorker becomes the nation’s first saintEphemeral New York
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