On August 1, 2015, a parish merger took place, with this parish, Holy Family, absorbing Blessed Sacrament parish and that of St. John Vianney. Mass will not longer be offered at St. John Vianney, but Mass and sacraments will take place at both Holy Family and Blessed Sacrament. The Holy Family website, which needs updating is linked here.
See page 220 for the parish of the Holy Family, Unionport, founded in 1896 for German Catholics. The present church on the southwest corner of Castle Hill Avenue and Watson Avenue was built in 1962.This intersection is a short block south of the Cross-Bronx Expressway (Interstate 95; the service road is also named East 177 Street). The rectory address is 2158 Watson Avenue, Bronx NY 10472, telephone 718-863-9156. The parish elementary school is at 2169 Blackrock Avenue, immediately south of the church.
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The parish is staffed by the Apostles of Jesus Missionary Congregation, A.J. A relevant article appeared in 2017, linked HERE.
The church steps face Otis Avenue. Just one block west is busy East Tremont Avenue.
At the rear of the church (the north side, that is) a trench carries the traffic of Interstate 95, here called the Bruckner Expressway. Terence Cardinal Cooke (1921-1983) hailed from this parish twenty or more years before the highways arrived.
See page 482 for St Benedict's parish in Throgs Neck, established in 1923 by Benedictines from Collegeville, Minnesota. The present church dates from about 1960. In 1976 (thanks to a reader who commented), the parish was transferred from the care of the Benedictines to archdiocesan priests. I have been unable to determine whether the boundaries of the Village of Unionport included territory later within this parish, as the bicentennial history implies. The rectory address is 2969 Otis Avenue, Bronx NY 10465, telephone 718-828-3403. The church website is linked here.
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Shown below is the parish school at 1016 Edison Avenue, a half-block south of the church. Both are in a quiet neighborhood of private homes two blocks from the busy intersection of I-95 (Bruckner Blvd) and East Tremont Avenue. The school would appear to have one or two sections per grade, total enrollment about 340.
