St. Patrick’s Church marks 175th anniversary

The Roman Catholic parish of St. Patrick’s was established in 1849. However, first masses were conducted as early as 1843 in the Cummins family’s barn at Clark Street (now 99th Street) and Shore Road, and later at Peter Murphy’s house on Fort Hamilton Avenue, near Lafayette Street (now 95th Street).

At this period in history this area was not part of Brooklyn. The region surrounding St. Patrick’s was part of the Village of Fort Hamilton and under the aegis of the Town of New Utrecht. It wasn’t until 1894 when New Utrecht was annexed by the then-independent city of Brooklyn and the old street names were changed to numerical street numbers.

There was no Brooklyn Diocese yet, so the Archdiocese of New York headed by Archbishop John Hughes authorized plans for the building of a parish church. With financial help from the Catholic soldiers stationed at Fort Hamilton, the first St. Patrick’s Church, a wood frame building, was erected in 1850 on the southwest corner of Lafayette Street and Stewart Avenue (now Fourth Avenue).

On Dec. 12, 1852, Archbishop Hughes was rowed across the Narrows from Staten Island to formally dedicate the new church. The first pastor of St. Patrick’s was Rev. Peter McLoughlin.

In 1853 the Brooklyn Diocese was established. It included Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties and Bishop John Loughlin was named to lead it. When St. Patrick’s was founded, it became the oldest Catholic house of worship in southwest Brooklyn and older than all the other Catholic Churches in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In April 1925 the original church was demolished. It was replaced with a much larger brick edifice and dedicated by Brooklyn Bishop Molloy on Dec. 12, 1926, at an estimated cost of $250,000. The current and 21st pastor is Rev. Brian P. Dowd.

On Sunday, March 17 at 12:30 p.m., Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez will be celebrating the 175th Anniversary Year Feast Day Mass. Another term for the 175th year celebration is the dodransbicentennial!