Completed 1888 | Cost 158,000 USD Demolished 1967 | |
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Country United States of America Architectural styles | ||
The Church of St. Joachim is a former Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 26 Roosevelt Street, in Manhattan, New York City.
Contents
The parish was established in 1888 by the Missionary Fathers of St. Charles Borromeo, with the Rev. F. Morelli, C.S.C.B., as its first pastor. It was the first national parish in the United States founded for Italians, who had previously had to worship in the basements of the Catholic churches made up of Irish-American congregants. The total debt of the property was $158,000.
Because of the increased parish numbers, the Rev. Vincent Jannuzzi, C.S.C.B., founded St. Rocco's Chapel at 18 Catherine Slip as a mission chapel of St. Joachim Parish, as well as the Madonna Day Nursery on Cherry Street, which opened in 1910 and was staffed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine. The 1913-1914 parish statistics listed 1,000 baptisms, 250 marriages and 400 confirmations.
The parish had a brief connection with Mother Cabrini, who was helped by the Scalabrini Missionaries upon her arrival in the United States in 1889. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, whom she had founded, were the first teachers at the St. Joachim parish school when it was opened. They withdrew from the school in 1892.
Building
The midblock gabled brick Victorian Italianate church with Romanesque details "in the Roman style" was designed with a seating capacity of 800.
In 1914, the parish consisted of 18,000 Italian immigrants and second-generation Italian-Americans. The church owned three buildings then, of which one it had planned to turn into a parochial school. The Romanesque church tower, built 1888, at 22 Roosevelt Street "was a harbinger for Judson Memorial Church".
Closing
By 1967 the City of New York had decided to build a housing development on Park Row as part of its urban renewal program. They acquired a six-block area for this project, which including the parish property, and the church was torn down. The parish was merged by the Archdiocese of New York with the nearby St. Joseph's Church, founded by the Scalabrini Fathers around 1923, with Father Januzzi as the first pastor.