Country United States Website corpus-christi-nyc.org Opened 1935 | Denomination Roman Catholic Founded May 1906 (parish) Phone +1 212-666-9350 | |
Location 533-535 West 121st Street, New York City, NY 10027 Architectural type English Baroque
Baroque Revival Address 529 W 121st St, New York, NY 10027, USA Architectural style Baroque Revival architecture Archdiocese Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Similar Church of the Holy Agony, St Pius V's Church, St Frances of Rome's Church, St Benedict the Moor, Church of St Catherine | ||
The Church of Corpus Christi is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, New York City. The parish was established in 1906. The parish priest is concurrently the Catholic chaplain at the nearby Columbia University
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Buildings
The church, founded by Rev. John H. Dooley, was built in 1906–1907 as a brick and stone chapel and three-storey parish house, all over basement, to designs of F. A. de Meuron of Main Street, Yonkers, New York, for $45,000. The structure was a five-bay three-storey Beaux-arts brick school house with a stone-quoined breakfront occupying the central three bays that contained a temporary church and rectory. The new church, school, and rectory cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1906 and the structure was dedicated June 30, 1907 by Archbishop John Farley.
These buildings were replaced in 1930 with a new church and rectory built 1930 to the designs by Thomas Dunn and Frederick E. Gibson. The current church, school, and convent were dedicated on October 25, 1936. The church was designed in 1935 by Wilfred E. Anthony. The current baptistery survives from F. A. de Meuron's original 1906 church.
Although the classical exterior of the church is not prepossessing, the interior is widely admired. Time Out New York calls it "gorgeous," while the AIA Guide to NYC urges passersby to enter and admire a sanctuary that looks as though it was designed by a disciple of Sir Christopher Wren.
The parish school opened in September 1907, staffed by the Sisters of Charity of New York. The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, were welcomed to the school in 1936.
Notable events
On November 16, 1938, Thomas Merton was baptized at Corpus Christi Church and received Holy Communion.