Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph
856 Pacific Street | Prospect Heights | built 1930
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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.
- 1861
St. Joseph's first church is dedicated by Brooklyn's first Catholic bishop before a crowd of over 3,000
The parish was founded in 1850 for a poor Irish Catholic congregation. The first church on this site was dedicated in 1861 under Brooklyn's first Catholic bishop. It seated about 1,800 people, but the dedication drew more than 3,000, and it soon seemed a larger church would be needed.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1912
A much larger limestone and marble church by Francis J. Berlenbach Jr. replaces the first St. Joseph's
The growing parish built a new, much larger church on the site of the old one in 1912, designed by Williamsburg architect Francis J. Berlenbach Jr. Brownstoner calls the design Italian Renaissance. It is built of limestone and marble, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, stained glass, painted and mosaic ceilings and floors, and multicolored marble details. The parish complex also had a school, convent, parish house and shrine garden.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2011
A Mexican priest, Jorge Ortiz-Garay, leads a growing congregation at a parish that had fallen below 100 members
By 2009 St. Joseph's had fewer than 100 members and looked likely to close. Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay, the only Mexican priest assigned to the Diocese of Brooklyn in 2011, then began leading a growing congregation of Mexican immigrants, some traveling over an hour to attend. By 2012 the congregation topped 300, and a team of restorers was reviving the church.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2013
Pope Benedict XVI approves St. Joseph's as the Diocese of Brooklyn's co-cathedral
On February 14, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI approved Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio's petition to make the church a co-cathedral. The Cathedral Basilica of St. James was too small for diocesan liturgies, and St. Joseph's sat near the new Barclays Center. The church holds 1,500 worshippers, and the building went through an $18.5 million renovation.
Source: Wikipedia
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