St. Athanasius Church

884 Tiffany Street | Hunts Point | built 1910

Open on the map4 entries

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. 1908

    May 31

    Cardinal Michael Logue of Armagh lays the cornerstone of St. Athanasius Church

    Archbishop John Farley created the parish in 1907 and paid $58,000 for the entire city block. Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, set the cornerstone while visiting the United States for the New York archdiocese's centenary. The finished church was solemnly dedicated on February 21, 1909.

    “The cornerstone was laid on May 31, 1908, by Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1968

    Father Louis Gigante and Sister Thomas found the South East Bronx Community Organization

    Louis R. Gigante, brother of the gangster Vincent "the Chin" Gigante, arrived at St. Athanasius as a curate in 1958 and started the Simpson Street Development Association in 1967. Sister Miriam Thomas Collins, a Sister of Charity who had come to teach at the parish in 1962, joined him in creating SEBCO in 1968. The group draws on federal Section 8 money to turn abandoned buildings into affordable housing.

    “…who came to the parish in 1962 as a teacher, joined with Gigante to found the South East Bronx Community Organization (SEBCO) in 1968…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1974

    Pastor William Smith co-founds the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes

    In 1974 William Smith, pastor of St. Athanasius, co-founded the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes, another neighborhood activist group. It followed SEBCO, which the parish's Louis Gigante and Sister Thomas had started in 1968. The state Housing Finance Agency later credited the church's priests and nuns with leading the area's tenants' rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2010

    Sister Thomas and her flea market are expelled from St. Athanasius

    Sister Miriam Thomas Collins had served the parish since 1962, co-founded SEBCO and organized the first South Bronx Halloween parade in 1985. In 2010, shortly after a new pastor arrived, she and the flea market she had run for years were abruptly put out of the parish. The move split the congregation: many parishioners joined protests against it, while others stood by the pastor.

    “Sister Thomas and the flea market she long organized were expelled from the parish unceremoniously in 2010, dividing the community…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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