Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church (Queens)

The Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, also known as the Church of the Holy Cross, is a Roman Catholic church located at 61-21 56th Road[1][2] in Maspeth, Queens, New York City. It is considered as one of the national churches[3] within the geographical area. Historically, the purpose of establishing the church and its parish in 1912 was to provide spiritual services to early immigrants from Poland. It once had a school known as the Holy Cross School.

General information
Town or cityMaspeth, Queens, New York
CountryUnited States of America
Construction started1913

History

Its parish was organized in 1908 as the Society of St. Joseph. The leader of the parish in 1912 was Reverend Adalbert Nawrocki (its first pastor, also known as Rev. Wojciech Nawrocki), when plans were made for the building of the church itself. Its first parishioners had to visit their then bishop 26 times before their wish to erect a church building was granted at the cost of around US$75,000. Its cornerstone was laid on June 22, 1913, and was completed after five months.[4] Its first mass was held on October 1, 1913.[2]

Architecture

Dedicated on November 30, 1913, the church was built based on Roman-style design. It can seat 800 persons. It has three altars made of marble, stained-glass windows, Stations of the Cross and features two sacristies. It has a tower belfry with a chime of bells. Its school was a stone structure with eight classrooms that could accommodate 1600 children altogether. It also had a gymnasium, rooms for the Sokoly Society and other activities.[2]

The AIA's Guide to New York City comments of the building that, "the voluptuous curvilinear verdigris copper steeple makes this church extraordinary. Disney must be jealous."[5]

Organ

The church features a Wurlitzer or theatre-style organ, a musical instrument built by George H. Ryder (from Boston, Massachusetts) in circa 1878 and was rebuilt by Bozeman-Gibson (from Deerfield, New Hampshire) in 1973. The organ was formerly built for the State Prison in Concord, Massachusetts.[2]

See also

References
  1. Learning The St. Stan’s Way; Special Approach Seen At Parish School And Church Archived 2015-09-13 at the Wayback Machine, by Bill Mitchell, Times Newsweekly
  2. Church of the Holy Cross (Roman Catholic)
  3. Explanation from Genealogical FAQ’s:
    "During the 1800s and 1900s two types of parishes were erected: national parishes and territorial parishes. National parishes were founded for Catholics of a specific nationality: e.g., German, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Spanish-speaking. Territorial parishes were the predominant type, covering a specific geographical area. Irish Catholics and others without a specific national church would have attended the territorial parish whose boundaries they lived within. During the twentieth century, parishes were specifically founded for African-Americans. Rather than founding parishes for new ethnic groups, parishes offer Mass in their language (some parishes have Mass in five languages!). Unless otherwise noted, the parishes listed below were territorial parishes."
  4. Queens Polish Parish Marks 100 Years by Jaroslaw Smigielski (Translated from Polish by Aleksandra Slabisz) Voices of NY, June 4, 2013
  5. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot & Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 775. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7.

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