St. Joseph Plaza is an event venue in Newark,

Essex County, New Jersey Essex County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is one of the centrally located counties in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county was the state's second-most populous county,< ...

, which formerly served St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of the

Archdiocese of Newark The Archdiocese of Newark () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States. The mother church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Hea ...

of the

Roman 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The church was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on December 8, 1980, for its significance in architecture and religion. With

Architecture

The church was a traditional

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Ty ...

church, with a tall central nave flanked by lower aisles and transepts, oriented with the apse facing east and the three entrance doors facing west, one for each aisle and another along the nave. The nave has a steep slate gable roof. The front façade is asymmetrical, with a square bell tower with flat top on one side. The interior was extensively renovated in the early 1980s, but the exterior, having been registered as a landmark, remained unchanged.

History

The congregation was established in 1859 by

James Roosevelt Bayley James Roosevelt Bayley (August 23, 1814 – October 3, 1877) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as the first Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Bishop of Newark (1853–1872) and as Roman Ca ...

, first bishop of Newark. The construction of the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a toll road, common carrier Anthracite, anthracite coal canal across North Jersey, northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its weste ...

had bisected the parish of St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral, and also attracted Catholic immigrant workers to the area, necessitating a new worship space. A two-story brick building was built to serve as the parish's church and school. Fr. James F. Dalton was named its first pastor in 1868, and a stone he had brought back from

Glendalough Glendalough (; ) is a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland, renowned for an Early Medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St Kevin. From 1825 to 1957, the head of the Glendalough Valley was the site of a galena lead min ...

, Ireland was laid as the cornerstone for a new stone church on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

Day in 1872. Irish-American architect

Jeremiah O'Rourke Jeremiah O'Rourke, FAIA, (6 February 1833 – 22 Apil 1915), was an Irish-American architect known primarily for his designs of Roman Catholic churches and institutions and Federal post offices. He was a founder of the Newark-based architectural ...

designed the new church in the Gothic Revival style. Construction was repeatedly delayed, and it was not dedicated until April 18, 1880. A 3-story brick

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

was built in 1885. St. Joseph's School, a 4-story brick building, was constructed north of the church in 1894. The neighborhood was depopulated by

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

projects which cleared out residential areas and saw the expansion of neighboring university campuses, and by

white flight The white flight, also known as 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 Racism ...

after the

1967 Newark riots The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and hundreds more s ...

, accelerating a post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

decline in enrollments as parishioners decamped for the suburbs. The congregation had declined to about 30 when the archdiocese closed the parish in 1980, the same year the complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places. A local housing non-profit, the

New Community Corporation New Community Corporation (NCC) is a not-for-profit community development corporation based in Newark, New Jersey. NCC focuses on community organizing, provision of a variety of community-enhancing services, and resident participation in agency o ...

, acquired the complex for $105,000 shortly thereafter and began redeveloping it. The church was converted into a restaurant, offices, and performance space, and the rectory into commercial offices; the school building was demolished for parking. It was New Community's first commercial office venture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church Rectory And School Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Gothic Revival architecture in New Jersey Roman Catholic churches completed in 1880 Religious organizations established in 1859 Organizations disestablished in 1980 National Register of Historic Places in Newark, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

Architecture

History

See also

References