The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroug ...

located in Tuckahoe, New York. Founded in 1853, the parish is dedicated to the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

of the

Blessed 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 Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

. Following a merger, the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

was reorganized as the parish of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of our Lady, including the respective two churches.

History

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was created as a mission of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

in 1853 under the

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

ship of Fr. Thomas McLoughlin by order of the

Archbishop of New York The Archbishop of New York is the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, who is responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. As the archdiocese is the metropolitan bishop, metropolitan see of the ecclesiastic ...

, John Hughes. Though not yet an official parish or mission, mass was said regularly by Fr. Eugene Maguire from St. Raymond's Church in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in the colonial-era Marble House that lies across NYS Route 22. By virtue of its founding date, the Church of the Immaculate Conception is the oldest Catholic church in Eastchester (the town in which the village of Tuckahoe is located) and one of the oldest in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...

, as well as one of the oldest institutions of any kind in Eastchester. With a growing Irish, Italian, German, and Lithuanian population of Catholics in the

Bronxville Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ...

area of Eastchester (the area not yet incorporated into a village), as well as the neighboring communities in Eastchester and Yonkers, Immaculate Conception's priest, Fr. John G. McCormack with the assistance of Fr. Joseph L. McCann and Fr. Martin Lydon, established a mission in 1905 that would eventually become the Church of St. Joseph. Construction of a wooden church building began in Waverly Square and Archbishop

Michael Corrigan Michael Augustine Corrigan (August 13, 1839May 5, 1902) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third archbishop of New York from 1885 to 1902. Early life Michael Augustine Corrigan was born August 13, 1839, in Ne ...

deeded to the young parish the plot of land on which it sat in 1886, though it had initially been gifted to the Archdiocese of New York 32 years prior by a local Catholic quarryman. A belfry was subsequently added in 1885. The mission that was dedicated in the honor of the

was elevated to the rank of a parish in 1878 by Cardinal

John McCloskey John McCloskey (March 10, 1810 – October 10, 1885) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first American born Archbishop of New York from 1864 until his death in 1885, having previously served as Bishop of ...

upon the visit and recommendation of the archdiocese's vicar general William Quinn. The parish's first pastor, Fr. John Ambrose Keogh, was appointed that year. The parish was incorporated on April 5, 1886, as "The Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Village of Tuckahoe, County of Westchester, N.Y." and lay trustees were appointed. IC Church 800

With the appointment of Fr. John G. McCormick as pastor, a new plot of land that would house the present-day French

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 was purchased for $15,000, a price asked by the Catholic owners that was significantly lower than market value. The new building was designed by Thomas J. Duff and the cornerstone was laid on November 8, 1908, with a parade and ceremony attended by 5,000 locals. For lack of funds, parishioners, many of whom worked in the Tuckahoe quarries, helped to build the church part-time. The church was completed in 1911 with its dimensions measuring in length and in width. The stone façade was constructed from locally quarried

Tuckahoe marble Tuckahoe marble (also known as Inwood and Westchester marble) is a type of marble found in southern New York state and western Connecticut. Part of the Inwood Formation of the Manhattan Prong, it dates from the Late Cambrian to the Early Ordovici ...

. Stained glass windows were delivered from

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and the

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

of the old wooden church was disassembled and moved to the new church, where it remains today. The first

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

was celebrated August 20, 1911 and the building was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

the following year on May 18 by Msgr.

Patrick J. Hayes Patrick John Hayes FAAAI (born 21 August 1944) is a British computer scientist who lives and works in the United States. , he is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida. Education Ha ...

. At the time of consecration, around 900 Catholics were parishioners of the church. Over time, adjacent properties were acquired, on which the present-day school building and other facilities were constructed. This new church building was quickly supplemented by the construction of the nearby Church of the Assumption as a

national parish National parish is a type of Catholic parish distinguished by liturgical rites or nationality of the congregation; it is found within a diocese or particular Church, which includes other types of parishes in the same geographical area, each parish ...

for the many new

Italian immigrants The Italian diaspora is the large-scale emigration of Italians from Italy. There were two major Italian diasporas in Italian history. The first diaspora began around 1880, two decades after the Risorgimento, Unification of Italy, and ended in the ...

. In 1912, the School of the Immaculate Conception was founded as a parochial elementary school in the no-longer-used wooden church building approximately a mile away, and by the following year was staffed by

religious sisters A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pra ...

. By 1914, the enrollment in the school had reached 75 students who were instructed by a lay teacher along with the sisters. A new School of the Immaculate Conception was later built in its current location abutting the church, and the former building was demolished. The

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...

established a Tuckahoe Council in 1920 and operate out of the Immaculate Conception parish. In 2014, the Archbishop of New York,

Cardinal Timothy Dolan Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He is the tenth and current Archbishop of New York, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. Dolan served as the president of the United S ...

, announced that the nearby parish of the Church of the Assumption would be merged with the Church of the Immaculate Conception as part of larger archdiocese-wide mergers.

References

External links

* {{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York Roman Catholic churches in New York (state) Churches in Westchester County, New York Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Religious organizations established in 1853 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1911 Gothic Revival church buildings in New York (state) 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States