Holy Cross Church - NY, NY
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 40° 45.482 W 073° 59.479
18T E 585141 N 4512386
Holy Cross Church is a Roman Catholic church located at 329 West 42nd Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.
Waymark Code: WM109BB
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 03/25/2019
Views: 5
Taken from the History of Holy Cross Church: (
visit link)
"In the 1850s, when Times Square was still known as Longacre Square, tens of thousands of Irish Catholics lived there with no place to worship. It was at this time that Archbishop John Hughes founded Holy Cross Church to minister to their needs. The original church, seriously damaged by lightning in 1867, was demolished. The new church, built on the same site, was opened to the public in 1868."
The Holy Cross Parish was established in 1852 to serve the needs of the wave of Irish immigrants living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. This is the third structure on the site. The red brick church was designed by Henry Engelbert in the Italianate Gothic style. The church was opened for worship in 1868 and completed in 1870 making it the oldest building on 42nd Street.
The church has a notable ministry. Since 1900, Holy Cross Church has worked to combat poverty, crime and drugs in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. From 1921 to 1932 the highly most highly decorated cleric in the history of the United States Army, Father Frances P. Duffy, the chaplain for New York's "Fighting Irish 69th Regiment" during World War I, led the parish. For this reason the church is often referred to as the "Fr. Duffy Church".
Today the church is operated as a ministry of the Capuchin Franciscans of the Archdiocese of New York.