The Church of St. Augustine was 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, ...

under the authority of the

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. It was located at 1183 Franklin Avenue between East 167th Street and East 168th Street in the

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neighborhood of

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 ...

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. St. Augustine's merged with

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to form the parish of St. Augustine - Our Lady of Victory. St. Augustine's was closed in 2011 and demolished in 2013.

Buildings

The church was built in 1894 to the designs of architect Louis H. Giele with

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and

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

design elements. It was dedicated in 1895 by the Archbishop of New York. The parochial school nearby was completed in 1904. The ''

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'' (2010) described the church's architecture as: "Renaissance and Baroque elements combine in this somber but imposing facade. The parish school across the street to the north is distinguished by glazed blue and white

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sculpture set into the tympanum of its Classical pediment." Plans were filed by owner the Augustine Society of

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, in April 1906 for a site on the southeast of Andrew Avenue, 200 feet south of Fordham Road. The structure would be a two-storey brick school, 54x100 feet, to the designs by architect J. O'Connor for $50,000. The church developed leaks and was deemed unsafe in the summer of 2009, with worship services continuing in the auditorium of St. Augustine's Parochial School. Funds from the school had been helping pay the church building's upkeep. The Rev. Thomas Fenlon, pastor of the church, sought a developer to demolish St. Augustine's Church and build affordable housing on the site, constructing a new smaller church next door. In late 2013, the church, rectory and convent were demolished.

Parish history

The parish was canonically established in 1849 as the Bronx began attracting German and Irish residents. The first mass was held in a private residence on Boston Road. The

site for the present church on the northeast corner of Franklin Avenue and Jefferson Street was purchased in 1850 with a small wooden church immediately being erected. This in turn was replaced in 1858 by one of brick construction and dedicated by Archbishop John Hughes. In 1892, the parish address was at 867 Jefferson Street. That structure was destroyed in 1894 during a fire and the present structure was dedicated in 1895. As the Bronx grew in the early 20th century, Irish, German, and Italian immigrants swelled the congregation. To serve this enlarged parish, a parochial school (see below) was established in 1906. Ongoing construction with the parish school and significant debt accumulated towards the management of the church necessitated the parish to establish the Diamond Jubilee Campaign, which proved inadequate "to cope with the poor structural condition of the church" during the 1930s and 1940s. The post-World War II

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

from

and the

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in general and the community's replacement with many African Americans from Harlem led to the congregation dwindling and becoming overwhelmingly African American by the late 1950s. By the late 1960s, the parish was reduced by a third again as drug-related issues affected the neighborhood.

Outreach

St. Augustine's held weekly masses in three languages. It sponsored many community programs, including a food pantry, a men's society,

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, and youth dances. By the early 1970s, parish leaders, including the Rev. Robert Jeffers, began to strategize on how to improve the community. During that decade, a group of

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began administering specifically "to children, elderly, and anyone else in need." St. Augustine's School of the Arts was established in 1979 to provide neighborhood youth an arts-based curriculum. The church also established the Alpha Housing Coalition to provide assistance to neighborhood tenants and residents. Since the mid-1980s, the church was a member of the SHARE ( Self-Help and Resource Exchange) Program, providing families with food packages in exchange for community service. The church was a founding member in the 1987 establishment of South Bronx Churches (SBC), an organization providing area residents with housing and other services. As of December 2010, Sister Dorothy Hall ran the food pantry.

St. Augustine's School

St. Augustine's School is located at 1176 Franklin Avenue on the east side between East 167th Street and East 168th Street. According to the ''

'', the structure was completed in 1904. However, a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article indicates the building permit was only filed in 1906, which would agree with the school's own history of its founding. (Alternatively, different buildings might be in question.) The parish history dates the parochial school's establishment to 1906. The original building was designed for 1,200 students but a new schoolhouse was constructed on Fulton Avenue in 1913 to accommodate greater numbers. It was reported in December 2010, that St. Augustine School was "one of six Bronx parochial schools facing closure by the New York Archdiocese because of dwindling enrollment and mounting deficits." The school was also serving as the place of worship since the church building was deemed unsafe. "St. Augustine enrolled only 170 students this fall, down from 252 in 2008, with chool board member MichaelBrady blaming the bad economy and a tuition hike ordered by the Archdiocese. The school's families earn just an average of $16,000 per year, he said, but 100% of its students graduate on time and 98% go to college....The school is 10% Muslim." Efforts to keep the school open included teachers agreeing to cut their salaries by 10% and the school launching a registration drive, which enrolled "45 new students in less than two weeks." Tuition was 3% of their annual family income. Archbishop Timothy Dolan visited the church in August 2010, and the school was among 27 whose closure he announced on 11 January 2011.

References

External links

Fordham University, St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church History PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Augustine's Church, Bronx, New York 1849 establishments in New York (state) 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Baroque Revival architecture in New York City Roman Catholic churches in the Bronx Demolished churches in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in the Bronx Religious organizations established in 1849 Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City Roman Catholic churches completed in 1894 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1904 Private middle schools in the Bronx Catholic elementary schools in the Bronx Morrisania, Bronx Buildings and structures demolished in 2013