St. Joseph's Church-Catherine Street QuickTime VR Movie
St. Joseph's Church is on Monroe St and PS1 is on Madison, 1 block NW (approx).Background: St. Joseph’s Church at 5 Monroe Street was built in 1925 to serve the Italian population. Its parishioners are now 70% Chinese. In mid-August, it hosts the annual St. Rocco’s feast, once held at St. Joachim’s Church, where Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, began her ministry in 1889. She established a network of hospitals and social services extending from New York to Chicago, Golden, Colorado, and Seattle. Despite protests by former parishioners including Jimmy Durante, the church was demolished in 1959 to build apartments. PS 1 at Oliver and Henry streets, a school dating from 1806 attended by Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, and Luther Vandross, among others.
So glad you are recording this history! I am truly grateful to those who take the time to inform us of the amazing stories of this important center of our city's history. Please keep it going!
ReplyDeleteMy contact info is Thea Martinez: 347 920-7147. theamartinez7@gmail.com. I am a tour guide and will be leading tours around Cherry St. in the Spring and Summer. My focus is on informing youth about our civic history, our great reformers and community leaders such as Jacob Riis, Lillian Wald and Samuel Gompers and many of the Latino and Asian activists and artists of the neighborhood. My project's name is Thea Martinez and The Lower East Side Local Heroes Project. I'm just getting ready to launch it and am so glad I saw your blog!
Thanks again,
Thea