Historic All Saints Church in Harlem To Be Sold

Another beautiful Church falls victim to the post-Conciliar collapse of the Faith. When will it end?

From the NY Post

By Melissa Klein

Historic All Saints Church — called the “St. Patrick’s of Harlem” — is about to be sold, The Post has learned.

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York shuttered the church in 2015 and the landmark building, along with its adjacent school and parish house, which occupy an entire block, have stood empty since.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese would not provide any details on the pending sale.

“There is no final agreement in place; things are in process,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese.

The church at East 129th Street and Madison Avenue dates to 1883 and was designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Smithsonian Institution’s “castle building” in Washington, DC.

“Among the many churches he designed during his long career, the Church of All Saints has been called his best,” the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission said in its 2007 report declaring the church, school and parish house as landmarks.

Circa 1905 — All Saints Roman Catholic Church.mcny.org

The Gothic Revival church has a giant rosette window above its main entrance, similar to the facade of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, and a distinctive bell tower. The bell was inscribed “Queen of All Saints, pray for us.”

All Saints’ first parishioners were Irish immigrants and they numbered in the thousands. But attendance dwindled in recent years with just a reported 100 coming per week. The school was closed in 2011 and the parish merged with the Church of St. Charles Borromeo on West 141st Street in 2015.

“Our institutions are not meant to be museums or relics, kept simply because of their architecture or style,” Zwilling told the Wall Street Journal.

The Landmarks Preservation approved a church proposal in 2019 to remove crosses, iconographic stained glass including two Tiffany windows and other items considered sacred at the building so the Archdiocese could “de-consecrate” the building and sell it. The Archdiocese said it would store the items for future possible use.

An LPC spokesman said the commission was unaware of any pending sale.