Holy Rosary / Nativity of Our Blessed Lady

Above is Holy Rosary church on Eastchester Road near Gun Hill Road. See pages 484 and 486 in Thomas Shelley's book for the 1925 creation of the parish. The rectory is to the left at 1510 Adee Avenue, Bronx NY 10469, telephone 718-379-4432. The church dates from 1970, probably just before architects realized that imposing steps often impose difficulties. An alternate access is at the blue sign. Clicking on any photo enlarges it.
On August 1, 2015, the archbishop of New York merged the parish of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady (two miles north) with that of Holy Rosary.  The parish bulletin displays the merged names.  

Above, a Catholic church that advertises the time for Bible Study!

If you click on the above bulletin pages, you might be able to read the text, which somewhat clarifies the size of the two parishes in the merger.

Above, the school in 2009.

For decades, the Presentation Sisters taught in Holy Rosary School and lived above it.  The school address is 1500 Arnow Avenue, likewise near the intersection of Gun Hill Road and Eastchester Road. The website of Holy Rosary Elementary School is linked here.

St Lucy, at Mace and Bronxwood Aves., Williamsbridge

See pages 482 and 484 for the parish of St. Lucy, shown above on the northwest corner of Mace Avenue and Bronxwood Avenue, Williamsbridge. The parish was established in 1927. The rectory address is 833 Mace Ave., Bronx NY 10467, telephone 718-882-0710. The church is entered by entering a gate (near the tree at the center of the photo) and descending steps. An upper church may have been planned. Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.
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The website of St. Lucy's parish school is kept up-to-date and informative.

The school takes up the south side of Mace Avenue from Matthews Avenue (on the right) to Bronxwood Avenue (beyond the left edge of the photo).
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Several newspaper articles available on the internet recount the history of the Lourdes grotto at this parish. Scroll down Forgotten-NY for photos, context, and text.
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Above is a partial view of the Hall of Saints, perhaps twenty-five statues of saints and objects of devotion.

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St. Theresa parish, Pelham Bay

Looking north on Pilgrim Avenue at St. Theresa Avenue, one can see St. Theresa School on the southwest corner and St. Theresa church on the northwest corner.
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See pages 482 and 483 for the parish of St Theresa of the Infant Jesus, Pelham Bay, founded in 1927 as an Italian national parish. The present church dates from 1970. The rectory address is 2855 St. Theresa Ave., Bronx NY 10461, telephone 718-892-1900.
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The parish school is located at 2872 St. Theresa Avenue, telephone 718-792-3688. The school website is here. Apparently, the school has about 350 students, two sections per grade.
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An interesting history is linked here. It explains that an architect, Anthony DePace, was a parish trustee who designed both the school and the new church.



The above photo looks east on St. Theresa Avenue towards to #6 train over Westchester Avenue.


Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

Our Lady of the Assumption, Pelham Bay

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.


See page 481 for the 1923 founding of Our Lady of the Assumption at Mahan and Roberts Avenue in the Pelham Bay neighborhood. The present church dates from 1961. The rectory address is 1634 Mahan Ave., Bronx NY 10461, telephone 718-824-5454. A parish bulletin is linked here.  Many thanks to the reader who supplied the URL for the parish website, which is very helpful and interesting.
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The parish school is on the Parkview Avenue side of the block, as in the above photo. The school address is 1617 Parkview Avenue, Bronx NY 10461, telephone 718-829-1706. The school website is linked here.  Enrollment appears to be about 320. Plastic owls keep pigeons away from Maria Assunta.

The above view is from Middletown Road. Mahan Avenue is at the left, Parkview Avenue at the right.

St. Frances de Chantal, Throgs Neck

See pages 482 and 483 for St. Frances de Chantal, established as a parish in 1926. The present church at the intersection of Harding Avenue and Hollywood Avenue in Throgs Neck dates from 1970. The rectory address is 190 Hollywood Avenue, Bronx NY 10465, and the phone number 718-792-5500. The parish website is here. According to the AIA Guide, the architect of the 1970 church was Paul W. Reilly, who also designed St. Vincent Ferrer church in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

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The above photo looks west across Hollywood Avenue. Buses Bx40, Bx42, and BxM9 stop near the church.



The Chapel in the upper church lobby is open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. for private prayer.


A newer, larger wing of the school is to the left. The school address is 2962 Harding Avenue, Bronx NY 10465, telephone 718-892-5359. The school website is linked here. There appears to be one section of students per grade.

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Adjacent southeast is the Jeanne Jugan Residence, a work of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The property was formerly the site of a monastery of Poor Clares.

Visitation, Van Cortlandt Park South

Sometime in 2023, Visitation Church was sold and leveled.  Please see https://www.riverdalepress.com/stories/van-cortlandt-church-property-fetches-29-million,80028

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As of August 1, 2015, Visitation church was closed for regular worship.  The merged parish of St. John - Visitation worships at St. John church, Kingsbridge Avenue near West 230th Street. Visitation School closed in June, 2017. At the same time, the archbishop decreed that Visitation church, pictured below, has been canonically relegated to profane, not sordid, use. The decree may still be available HERE on the archdiocesan website.
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The photos below are from 2010.  This was demolished in 2023.

See pages 478 and 480 for Visitation parish, Kingsbridge, founded in 1928. The second church dated from 1953, because the previous church and school (a combined building, if memory is correct) was destroyed to construct Major Deegan Expressway. The rectory address was 160 Van Cortlandt Park South, Bronx NY 10463.

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The parish school, now closed, is at 171 West 239th Street, Bronx NY 10463. The school had one section per grade. Lay teachers, Sisters of Charity, and Dominican Sisters staffed the school. In the 1940's, Mom occasionally subbed here. She learned that the principal required the students to walk on the gold or bronze line that separated the slabs of terrazzo in the halls.
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This note is from a viewer:

Just some more info on the Visitation Parrish

My family the

Greco/Caputo's moved to 238th St. around 1935 from St Nicholas Ave.

I know that my Uncles owned the stores along Bailey Ave.

I think cousins still may own them

and each of the Uncles had a business - the others were rented.

One of the 10 or so stores was given to Father Stafford?? the founder of Visitation by my uncles to use for Mass.

until the first church was built on 238th st. next to 135 west 238 st.

my older cousins who are now in their 80's went to Visitation and graduated from the old school.

I was in the first first grade class  at the new school and graduated in 1961.

in those days our first grade class had 58 students. Sister Dorothy was our teacher.

FYI

Rosemary Dilgard

St. Margaret Mary, East Tremont and Morris Aves.

The above view looks south across busy Tremont Avenue. Morris Avenue is one-way northbound, at the right of the photo, and the rectory is a few steps down that block. To the left of the church is the former parish school and the Grand Concourse.

This view is also taken from Tremont Avenue. The church is to the right. This appears to be a parking lot or playground for the school, closed in 2023. .

Above is the south entrance to former St. Margaret Mary school, situated on East 177 St.

See page 408 for a 1950's photo of a First Communion procession in St. Margaret Mary church. Parents and Sisters of Mercy may be seen at the procession. See page 472 for establishment of the parish in 1923. Page 473 has an exterior photo of the church. See page 606 for a reference to parishioners from Ghana. The rectory address is 1914 Morris Ave., Bronx NY 10453, telephone 718-299-4233.
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On 10.18.2023, I phoned the rectory and learned that the parish school closed this year..

Our Lady of Refuge, Briggs Ave. & East 196 St., Fordham

The above photo looks west across Briggs Avenue at East 196th Street. The parish center is on the southeast corner of the intersection, where all traffic meets stop signs. The parish school can be seen to the right. As an older, larger public school is on the north side of 196th Street, the neighborhood is filled with young students and their parents at arrival and dismissal. During school hours, traffic is prohibited on 196th Street from Briggs Avenue to Bainbridge Ave.

Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

In the above photo, the combined parish school and church is to the left of the red houses.

See page 478 for the founding of the parish of Our Lady of Refuge on Briggs Avenue at East 196 St., Fordham, in 1923. The church is within a combined school-and-church building. The extensive parish website is linked here. Under "About us" is a posting board. The website also has an informative history, the pastor's blog, photos, and a guest book. The rectory address is 290 East 196 St., and the phone number is 718-367-4690.
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The school address is 2708 Briggs Ave., telephone 718-367-3081. From the photos on the parish website, it appears that each grade numbers 25 to 29 students.

Nativity of Our Blessed Lady, East 233 St., Eastchester

Important!  Much of this post is contradicted by what I observed on 9.21.2019.  Please look at this update.
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The photographs below are from 2009.  On August 8, 2015, I passed this church and did not notice any sign that it was closed, even though the Archbishop merged this parish with Holy Rosary parish. Regular Mass and sacraments will not be available here, but rather at Holy Rosary - Nativity, on Eastchester Road near Gun Hill Road, where Father Dennis Williams is pastor of the combined parish.  However, some Mount Vernon Catholic churches may also be handy for displaced parisioners.  Historically this borderland of The Bronx has had strong ties to Mount Vernon.  Maybe most of the houses within Nativity parish (under the old parish-boundaries protocol) are, in fact, in Mount Vernon.  The Bronx side of the border, with Nativity church and school and the Dyre Avenue subway station is more commercial and industrial.


Nativity of Our Blessed Lady church stands at the southwest corner of East 233rd Street and Secor Avenue. The far side of the church, that is, facing Secor Avenue, has some windows. 

The address of the parish school is 3893 Dyre Avenue, Bronx NY 10466, telephone 718-324-2188.



See pages 484 and 485 for the foundation of the parish of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady near Dyre Avenue and East 233 Street in the Eastchester neighborhood of The Bronx. 
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Though the parish dates from 1924, a first church was completed in 1933, according to a parish history at this link. The church burned in 1958, and in 1969 the new church was inaugurated at the corner of Secor Avenue and East 233rd Street. For many years since the parish school's opening in 1953, the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh educated youngsters of Nativity. The school is at 3893 Dyre Avenue, telephone 718-324-2188. It appears that the school has one section per grade, as it graduated about thirty students in June, 2009. In September, 2019, it is actively recruiting students both for Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK, a municipal program) and the K-8 school.
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The name Eastchester dates back to the late 1600's, it seems, but the Town of Eastchester shrunk as cities and villages were carved from it. This northern neighborhood of The Bronx is correctly called Eastchester, but the remaining Town of Eastchester lies about six miles north. Church and school are near the Dyre Avenue terminus of the 5 Train of the New York City subway.
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A comment follows:

michael said...

"I grew up in the north Bronx. entered Nativity school the 1st year it opened. In fact, I have the program when Cardinal Spellman dedicated the school. I also was an altar boy when the church was on Secor Avenue. In fact, I served the last mass there on the day it burnt down. I also have a photo of my baptism that shows the lawn where the playground now is or was."

January 19, 2009 12:22 AM

Blessed Sacrament, Beach Ave., Soundview

See pages 484 and 486 for the 1927 creation of Blessed Sacrament parish, Beach and Gleason Avenues, a block south of Westchester Avenue. The church and school date from 1929. The rectory address is 1170 Beach Avenue, Bronx NY 10472, telephone 718-892-3214.  Facebook has pages of alumni and parishioners of Blessed Sacrament.
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In May, 2009, President Obama nominated a graduate of Blessed Sacrament school to the United States Supreme Court. This article by Michael Daly of the New York Daily News describes the school in 2009.  Unfortunately, the archdiocese decided to close the school in 2013.
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In the above photo, note the stained glass windows indicating the location of the church, with classrooms above it. Quite a few Bronx parishes were built with such combined use.


Above is the cornerstone at the north end of the combined school and church.

A second school building, with a 1955 cornerstone, is on the west side of Taylor Avenue, behind the 1929 building. According to the same New York Times article referred to above, the younger students used this building. Also on Taylor Avenue is the Seton House, a former convent with a 1950 cornerstone. For many decades, the Sisters of Charity taught in Blessed Sacrament School.

A playground and ballfield occupy the north side of Watson Avenue between Beach Avenue (to the left) and Taylor Avenue to the right.

One may find in the neighborhood quite a few signs like the above.

Mount St. Michael, Murdock Avenue, Wakefield

Above, the main entrance on Murdock Avenue. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Above is the view from the intersection of Nereid Avenue and Murdock Avenue.
Above, St. Michael the Archangel, guards the campus from rival teams in sports.

Above, looking east across from Nereid Avenue to Pitman Avenue. That is the Brothers' house, with football field and all-weather track to the left.


See page 378, for a passing reference to the arrival of the French-speaking Marist Brothers from Quebec. Their work continues at Mount St. Michael Academy, a boys' school (grades 6-12), 4300 Murdock Ave., Bronx NY 10466, telephone 718-515-6400.
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The Marists continue the work begun by St. Marcellin Champagnat in 1817 in southern France. They opened St. Anne's Academy on East 76 Street, Manhattan, in 1892, and in 1926 they opened Mount St. Michael Academy in The Bronx. In addition to the academy's scholastic work, the Mount is long-famous in Bronx high school sports. This is the same community that built Marist College in Poughkeepsie.
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The academy property is large. It is bounded by Murdock Avenue on the south, Pitman Avenue on the east, Mundy Lane on the north, and Nereid Avenue on the west. According to John McNamara's "History in Asphalt," Murdock Campbell was a Wakefield real estate agent around 1899, Pitman the name of a landowner further south on Pitman, Mundy a funeral director, and Nereid the name of a fire brigade near Richardson Avenue and Nereid Ave., which is also East 238th Street.