St. Anthony of Padua Church (Bronx)

St. Anthony of Padua Church is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 822 East 166th Street, Bronx, New York City in the neighborhood of Morrisania, near Prospect Avenue. The present church was built through the concerted efforts of pastor, the Rt. Rev. Joseph Francis Rummel (1876-1964), who was elevated as the bishop of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska (1928-1935) and in that capacity consecrated the church, before being elevated to archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans (1935-1964).

Not to be confused with St. Anthony's Church (Bronx).
Church of St. Anthony of Padua
(Bronx, New York)
(1904)
General information
Architectural styleRomanesque Revival (for present church)
Italianate (for 1904 church-hall-convent)
Town or cityMorrisania, Bronx, New York City
CountryU.S.
Coordinates
Construction startedMay 1904 (for church-hall-convent);[1]
1927 (for present church)[1]
CompletedMay 1905 (for church-hall-convent);
June 10, 1928 (for present church)[1][2][3]
Cost$70,000 (for 1904-1905 church-hall-convent and rectory).[1]
ClientRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Technical details
Structural systemMasonry brick

Parish

The parish was established in 1903[4] as the German National Parish in the Bronx, the penultimate founding of a German National Parish in the Archdiocese of New York.[3][5][6] The pastor of nearby St. John of Chrysostom Church opposed the new parish's founding because nearly all of the Germans were fluent in English.[1] Nevertheless, the German-Americans wanted their own church. A parish of the same dedication in Manhattan, St. Anthony of Padua's Church (Manhattan), (established in 1866) was declared the national parish of the Italian-American community in Manhattan.

Pastor Rev. Joseph F. Rummel, raised funds totaling $300,000 to build a new church.[1] His campaign was successful and he dedicated the building on June 10, 1928, having been appointed Bishop of Omaha earlier that year.[1]

No longer German, the parish is now mostly Latino.[1][7]

Buildings

Property was purchased on East 166th Street for $24,000 in November 1903.[1] he first purpose-built church was a combination of church-and-school-and-convent structure, built 1904-1905, and dedicated by Cardinal Farley.[1] The three-story-over-basement brick Italianate structure housed the church on the first floor, church hall in the basement, and 5 classrooms on the second floor, with the third floor given over to additional classrooms and convent rooms.[1] Thereafter property to the rear was purchased for a timber-framed rectory was purchased for $15,000.[1] The rectory address is 832 East 166 St., Bronx NY 10459.[8] Combined costs of works totaled $70,000.[1]

The present church was built from 1927 to 1928.[1][3] It was dedicated June 10, 1928 by the Rt. Rev. Joseph F. Rummel, Bishop of Omaha, who had been pastor at this church for ten years and had led the campaign to raise money for its erection.[2]

Pastors
  • Otto F. Strack (1903)[1]
  • Rev. Joseph F. Rummel[1]

References

Notes

  1. Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Roman Catholic) 832 East 166th Street at Prospect Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10459 (Accessed 31 March 2011)
  2. "Church Dedicated by Bishop Rummel," The New York Times, June 11, 1928: 24.
  3. Shelley, p.221.
  4. Lafort, Remigius. The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women.. (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.380.
  5. Haberstroh, Richard. The German Churches of Metropolitan New York: A Research Guide (New York City: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 2000).
  6. The last German national parish was St. John the Baptist de la Salle Church, in Stapleton, see Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Roman Catholic) 832 East 166th Street at Prospect Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10459 (Accessed 31 March 2011)
  7. Shelley, p. 606.
  8. Bronx Catholic Blog (Accessed 7 February 2011)

Bibliography

  • Shelley, Thomas J. The Archdiocese of New York: the Bicentennial History, (New York: Archdiocese of New York / Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe, 2007)
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