The parish was founded in 1876 with the Rev. Martin J. Brophy as the first pastor.[3] The congregation first met in the former Plymouth Baptist Church at 487 West 51st Street.
Vicar-General Mooney, pastor of the church in the 1890s, was a strong proponent of the parochial school system, as opposed to secular public schools. During a sermon at the dedication to the now closed and demolished St. Rose of Lima Parish School, he "urged his hearers to send their children to the parochial schools, where, he said, the religious instruction they would receive was far more important than the secular instruction they could receive in the public schools."[4]
Buildings
It is one of the largest churches in Midtown Manhattan.[5] The congregation was mostly Irish and German.
According to the parish history, the cornerstone of the present Victorian Romanesque church building was laid on July 23, 1884, and the finished church building was dedicated by The Most Rev. Michael A. Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, on May 17, 1885.[2] According to the AIA Guide to NYC (1978), the "symmetric confection of deep red brick and matching terra cotta frosted with light-colored stone arches, band courses, and copings" was built in Romanesque Revival to the designs by the prominent architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons.[1] The address listed in 1892 was 447 West 51st Street.[6]
In 1966, the interior of the church was the first in the Archdiocese of New York to be reconfigured after the Second Vatican Council.[7]
^"Distinguished Prelates at St. Rose’s: Bishop Michaud Celebrates Mass-Archbishop Corrigan Blesses a School", The New York Times, Sep 10, 1894. “Pontifical high mass was celebrated In the Church of St. Rose of Lima, In Cannon Street, yesterday, by the Right Rev. J. S. Michaud, coadjutor to Bishop De Goesbriand of Burlington, Vermont. His assistants were the Revs. N.J. Hughes and T. P. McLaughlin, deacons of honor; the Very Rev. William Penny, Dean of Newburgh, assistant priest; the Rev. Joseph Campbell, deacon of mass, and the Rev. Patrick E. Fitzsimmons, sub-deacon of the mass.
“On the Gospel side of the altar was a throne, which was occupied by Archbishop Corrigan. His deacons of honor were Vicar General Farley and the Rev. John Kearney, pastor of the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“Vicar-General Mooney, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart, was the preacher. He referred to the good that the parochial schools were doing in the city as well as throughout the State. Father Mooney urged his hearers to send their children to the parochial schools, where, he said, the religious instruction they would receive was far more important than the secular instruction they could receive in the public schools.
“Archbishop Corrigan, assisted by Bishop Michaud and a number of priest, at 4 PM blessed the new school attached to the church, which will be opened in about a month.”
