The New York Landmarks Conservancy on Monday said two Brooklyn historic religious properties were awarded a Sacred Sites Grant to help with restoration costs.
The nonprofit awarded a total of $244,500 to 15 historic religious properties throughout New York state, which includes $20,000 to Ninth Tabernacle Beth El in East New York, to help replace three pairs of entrance doors, and $15,000 to St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge to retore its doors.
“Religious buildings are important because they tell us about history, architectural development, beauty and hold so many communal memories,” said Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. “But congregations, including these recent grant recipients, also serve an important role today by providing their communities with a variety of social service and cultural programs.”
Ninth Tabernacle Beth El in East New York
Constructed in 1923, Ninth Tabernacle Beth El was designed by Brooklyn architect William Winters as Talmud Torah Atereth Israel for an Eastern and Central European Orthodox Jewish congregation. The building now serves as the home of Ninth Tabernacle Beth El, a Black Hebrew congregation, member of the Church of God and Saints of Christ.
The building was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style with round-arch arcade windows and a modillioned cornice. Despite the change in ownership, the building has maintained a high degree of physical integrity, notably the stained glass including a large Star of David in the sanctuary.
Activities at the building reach about 1,500 people beyond the congregation each year. Ninth Tabernacle Beth El partners with the Fountain Avenue Community Development Corp. and the Daughters of Jerusalem and Sisters of Mercy, two charitable organizations that originated in the tabernacle, to sponsor programs such as a back-to-school giveaway, a Thanksgiving "Love Basket" program (food baskets or supermarket gift cards), a winter clothing drive for shelter residents, a Brooklyn Hospital holiday drive distributing gifts to young patients, distribution of baby items and essentials to expectant mothers in homeless shelters (in collaboration with Congregation Etz Hayim), an annual Global Day of Service distributing necessities to families in shelters and the wider community, and hosting monthly meetings of the Fountain Avenue Block Association.
St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church
St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge was built to serve the Irish immigrant population of Fort Hamilton Village. The current building sits on the site of the original church that was dedicated in 1852, the first Roman Catholic Church in New Utrecht. In 1925, the original church was torn down to make way for the current Renaissance Revival building.
Also on the campus are a 1958 orange-brick Art Deco school building designed by architect William J. Boegel, now used by St. Patrick’s Catholic Academy, a circa 1930 orange-brick Art Deco rectory, a 1934 buff brick Renaissance Revival school building, now used by the ADAPT Community Network William O'Connor Bay Ridge School, and a circa 1930 buff-brick Renaissance Revival former rectory known as Msgr. Joseph K. Parks Center.
Activities on and off the church’s campus reach about 2,800 people outside of parish membership, including a weekly food pantry, Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets, an English learning group for recent immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, a bereavement support group, weekly Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, ACA, and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Irish step-dancing classes, bag pipe classes, knitting classes, girl scouts meetings, CYO sports programs, and rehearsals and performances of the Narrows Community Theater and a school drama club.
The parish also supports the U.S. Army Base at Fort Hamilton and the Shore Hill senior housing with masses and activities.
