Linked below is a message from Cardinal Timothy Dolan about moving the archdiocesan offices now at 1011 First Avenue to an office building at 488 Madison Avenue, close to the cathedral and the Cardinal's residence. Cathedral High School for Girls has already moved to 116 East 97th Street, behind the church of St. Francis de Sales. The Cardinal's announcement says nothing about the parish church of Saint John the Evangelist, which has been inside the East 55th Street portion of 1011 First Avenue since about 1973.
---
Both 1011 First Avenue and 488 Madison Avenue are huge. I presume that the archdiocese will need less space, maybe a floor or two. As the Look Building, 488 Madison was built in 1949 with 447,000 square feet on 23 stories. 1011 First Avenue has 20 stories and 398,214 square feet. I count 85 archdiocesan departments headquartered at 1011 First Avenue
---
In 1948, the archdiocese purchased three of the four Villard houses at at 455 Madison Avenue for a chancery. As an 8th grader in the fall of 1949, I got dressed there as an imitation Columban Father to participate in Mission Sunday. We then filed along East 50th Street, boy "missionaries" next to faux religious sisters in various child-size habits, as my Dad took at least one photo, now lost. It was the Religious of Jesus and Mary (RJM) from Kingsbridge who provided the cassock I wore. A girl classmate was in a RJM imitation habit. Twenty years later, some religious sisters, looking for a dispensation from vows, went to the Villard House for a required interview with a cleric. The archdiocese leased the Villard House property when it built 1011 First Avenue about 1973. The Villard House and its tall new building have had several renters or owners and different hotel names over the past fifty years.
https://thegoodnewsroom.org/cardinal-dolan-announces-relocation-of-new-york-catholic-center/
