St. Patrick's Cathedral - New York City, NY - Cathedrals on Waymarking.com

St. Patrick's Cathedral is at 50th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, just across the street from Rockefeller Center.

Construction of St. Patrick's Cathedral began in 1858 and was completed in 1878.

The site of the present cathedral was bought for $11,000 on March 6, 1810, as a site for a school for young Catholic men to be conducted by the Jesuits. This school failed, and in 1813 the land was sold again to Dom Augustin LeStrange, abbot of a community of Trappists (from the original monastery of La Trappe) who were in America fleeing persecution by French authorities. In addition to a small monastic community, they also looked after some 33 orphans. With the downfall of Napoleon in 1814, the Trappists returned to France, abandoning the property (the orphanage was maintained by the Diocese of New York into the late 1800s) — some of the monks traveled to Canada, however, and eventually founded St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.


The facade and 100 meters tall spires of the cathedral.The Diocese of New York, created in 1808, was made an archdiocese by Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850. On October 6, 1850, Archbishop John Joseph Hughes announced his intention to erect a new cathedral to replace the Old St. Patrick's, located on the intersection of Prince and Mott Streets on Mulberry Street. The "Old Cathedral" had been destroyed by fire in 1866 but was rebuilt and rededicated by 1868. It is still a parish church and is the oldest Catholic site in New York City[citation needed].

The cornerstone for the new cathedral was laid on August 15, 1858, just south of the diocese's orphanage, much further north of the populous areas of New York at that time. The cathedral was designed by James Renwick, Jr. in the Gothic Revival style.

Work was begun in 1858 but was halted during the American Civil War, commencing again in 1865. The cathedral was completed in 1878 and was dedicated on May 25, 1879, its huge proportions dominating the mid-town of that time. The archbishop's house and rectory were added from 1882 to 1884 and an adjacent school (no longer in existence) opened in 1882. The Towers on the West Facade were added in 1888, and an addition on the east, including a Lady Chapel, designed by Charles T. Mathews, began in 1901. The stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel were designed and made in Chipping Camden, England, by Paul Vincent Woodroffe between 1912-1930. The cathedral was renovated between 1927 and 1931, when the great organ was installed, and the sanctuary was enlarged.

The cathedral and associated buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.[1][2][3]


Architectural features

Detail of facade.
The nave of the cathedralThe cathedral is built of white marble quarried in New York and Massachusetts.
The parish is bounded by 59th Street, 3rd Avenue, 44th Street, and 7th Avenue and can hold 2,200 people.
The spires rise 330 feet (100 meters) from street level.
The windows were made by artists in Chartres, Birmingham and Boston. The great rose window is one of Charles Connick's major works.
The St. Michael and St. Louis altar was designed by Tiffany & Co.; the St. Elizabeth altar was designed by Paolo Medici of Rome.
The Stations of the Cross won a prize for artistry at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
The pietà is three times larger than the Michelangelo's Pietà.
A bust of Pope John Paul II is located in the rear of the cathedral, commemorating his visit to the city in 1979.
Francis Spellman, then archbishop and later cardinal, undertook a major renovation of the main altar area of the cathedral in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The bronze baldachino in the sanctuary is part of this work, and the former high altar and reredos that stood there were removed and replaced. The original High Altar of St. Patrick's is now in the University Church of Fordham University at Rose Hill in the Bronx, N.Y. (Spellman's alma mater; coincidentally, that church, built in the 1830s, is also home to stained glass windows donated by King Louis Philippe of France for the "Old" Cathedral downtown when it was originally being built — they were used for the Bronx church when it was discovered that they did not fit in the original St. Patrick's.) Clendenin James Ryan donated the Rose window.
In the 1980s, John Cardinal O'Connor undertook renovation work of his own, most notably the construction of a new stone altar in the middle of the sanctuary closer and more visible to the congregation. This was built from sections of one of the side altars that was removed to reposition the baptismal font in the north transept.
The roof is made from slate from a relatively unknown town by the name of Monson

Address: Saint Patricks's Cathedral 460 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic Date founded or constructed: 1858/08/15 Web site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
1.Describe your visit, including the date, with as much detail as possible
2.Provide at least one original photograph – no need to include your GPS in the picture

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   04/17/2019 Tit-Juju visited it 07/29/2018 LeviSat visited it 06/15/2018 Marvince visited it 08/08/2015 jonathanatpsu visited it 11/10/2014 gemeloj visited it 09/09/2014 adgorn visited it 04/25/2014 Ou_Est_Charly visited it 11/05/2013 Cyrano-Bella visited it 10/13/2013 innatus visited it 08/01/2013 GPComd visited it 06/25/2012 goff-family visited it 12/26/2011 grandmabetsy visited it 11/14/2011 beta59 visited it 08/17/2011 Metro2 visited it 07/23/2011 ras258 visited it 08/29/2010 js333 visited it 07/08/2010 40 visited it 05/25/2010 GEO BEAR visited it 12/13/2009 Team Rumble visited it 12/05/2009 theerooflove96 visited it 10/17/2009 Canadianzombie visited it 08/09/2009 Sneakin Deacon visited it 06/17/2009 The Sims visited it 05/17/2009 volatile visited it 01/14/2009 sparrows_gold visited it

View all visits/logs