The Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church is a parish church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York located at 207 West 96th Street at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue in the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was built in 1900 and was designed by Thomas H. Poole in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The parish was under the administration of the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

s for 30 years, between 1990 and 2020. The parish has an attached elementary and middle school, as well as a community center on West 97th Street. On May 8, 2015, the parish was merged with that of

St. Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

. The Church of St. Gregory the Great was deconsecrated and closed on June 30, 2017.

History

The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus was organized in 1868 in the area then known as Bloomingdale. A wood-frame church was erected on the northwest corner of Bloomingdale Road (now called Broadway) and 97th Street. The church was thirty-five by eighty feet, with a capacity of 500; it cost about $3,000 to build. The building was supervised by Father Richard Brennan. The new church was dedicated by Archbishop John McCloskey on September 20, 1868, and was legally incorporated in 1886."Holy Name of Jesus"
Church of the Holy Name of Jesus and St. Gregory the Great website For many years the pastor was Most Reverend Stephen Donahue, auxiliary bishop of New York. In 1939, after the death of

Cardinal Patrick Hayes Patrick Joseph Hayes (November 20, 1867 – September 4, 1938) was an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1919 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1924. Early life and ...

he was considered a possible successor as archbishop of New York. However,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

appointed Bishop

Francis Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...

, auxiliary bishop of Boston, to the See. Bishop Donahue died in 1982. In 1997, the church suffered damage when the air compressor in the organ caught fire during a noon mass. The church took the opportunity to initiate renovations, which were finished in 2000.

Architecture

Thomas Henry Poole designed the present

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church, which was built in stages from 1891 to 1900. The basement was finished in early 1892, and the new church was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan on March 20 of that year. The cornerstone for the main structure was laid on April 17, 1898, which was celebrated with a parade, and the completed church was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Corrigan on April 1, 1900. The steeple was added in 1918. The church's large interior is noted for its

hammer-and-beam ceiling A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...

, stained glass windows,

terrazzo floor Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

, and marble altars. It is built entirely of pink Milford granite, carved at the entrances and towers. The roof construction and ceiling are made of highly polished wood. The woodwork throughout the interior is fashioned from American quartered oak. The many columns supporting the roof have been designed in very light color to provide contrast with the darker ceiling.

Sanctuary and altars

The church boasts five marble altars. The high altar, at the center of the sanctuary, is in the decorative style of Gothic architecture. It features detailed carvings and columns of onyx. A featured carving is a relief image of the Last Supper, modeled after

Da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

's work of the same name. This carving was later moved to constitute the front of a new main altar, placed at the foot of the steps of the high altar. Two side altars also adorn the sanctuary – a Marian altar to the high altar's left, and one dedicated to Joseph on its right. Both side altars are made from the same marble, and were placed within the sanctuary on the day the church was dedicated. There are two additional altars, outside the communion rail, honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. Anne.

Stained glass

The large window over the main entrance of the church represents the Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus. The south transept's window represents the Presentation of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

in the Temple, while the window in the north transept depicts the apparition of the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The window nearest the altar of the Virgin Mary is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, while the window near the altar of

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

depicts his death. On the north and south sides of the church, the windows describe events in the life of Jesus Christ. On the south side are the annunciation, Christ's birth, the presentation in the Temple, Christ among the

Pharisees The Pharisees (; he, פְּרוּשִׁים, Pərūšīm) were a Jewish social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs bec ...

, and Christ as a carpenter. On the north side are Christ's baptism, Christ blessing the children, anointing at Bethany, the agony in the garden, and Christ's handing of the keys to

St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

Organ

M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company Mathias Peter Møller, commonly known as M.P. Möller or Moeller (29 September 1854 – 13 April 1937), was a prolific pipe-organ builder and businessman. A native of the Danish island of Bornholm, he emigrated to the United States in 1872 and fou ...

's Opus 6570 was installed in the church in 1937. The instrument contains four-manuals with 68 stops and 76 ranks. As a result of the 1997 fire, the organ suffered smoke and water damage and portions are not operable.

School

Money to build a school began to be collected early in 1902. The cornerstone was laid on October 16, 1904, and the building was completed in 1905. Located on the southwest corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 97th Street, it was blessed and dedicated on September 10, 1905, by Archbishop John Murphy Farley. The cost of building was $200,000. The Sisters of Charity were enlisted to serve as the school's faculty.

Community roles

Holy Name has taken a leading role in addressing social justice issues on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The church sponsored numerous petitions and took a leading role in closing a zoning loophole that a land developer had exploited in order to build two large condominium towers. Holy Name also organizes an interfaith March for Peace every year on Martin Luther King Jr Day, along with several Lutheran and Episcopal Churches and several synagogues and is the epicenter of the organization West Siders for Peace.

References

External links

Holy Name of Jesus official website

{{Coord, 40, 47, 40, N, 73, 58, 14.1, W, display=title Roman Catholic churches in Manhattan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Thomas Henry Poole buildings Upper West Side