More on the woman's body found this morning along Avenue B

[Dave on 7th]

This morning, we reported that a woman's body was found outside St. Brigid's on Avenue B ... Colin Moynihan at the Times has a follow-up piece on the discovery ... the police ID'd her as a woman in her 50s... Tompkins Square Park regulars said the woman's name was Liz ... Meanwhile, an EV Grieve reader noted: "I just walked past there again and one of her friends was bawling, 'Why did you do this, Liz?!' Poor guy. He was devastated."

We often see people sleeping in this alcove between the under-renovation St. Brigid's rectory and the school. Dave on 7th took the above photo on Aug. 28 as the remnants of Hurricane Irene hit the city...

Woman found dead outside St. Brigid's on Avenue B

Avenue B is currently closed between Seventh Street and Eighth Street ...

[Photo by Ted Roden]

... as police investigate the death of a woman under the sidewalk shed at St. Brigid's...

An officer told Dave on 7th that the victim is a homeless woman. No foul play is suspected. Another reader was told that the death is being treated as an overdose.

This is the same space where Grace Farrell died back in February.

St. Brigid's will have that 1848 look

Meanwhile, in more positive news... The Villager has an update on the renovations at St. Brigid's, the historic church on Eighth Street and Avenue B that was spared the wrecking ball by a determined group of volunteers... and later a guardian angel who donated some $10 million to restore the building.

Anyway! To the article!

Both the west and north facades (what everyone from the street sees) of the building are going to be sheathed in cast brownstone slabs, more or less restoring the look of what was there when the church was first built in 1848. They are working on this now, and roughly a quarter of the north wall has already been installed. The original north wall had to be completely demolished and rebuilt as part of the process of restoring structural stability to the church. This necessitated filling the entire church interior with scaffolding in order to support the roof during this reconstruction. But it was a big improvement over the original repair plan to simply re-stucco the existing facade.

Read the whole article here.

And here are several recent photos that I took showing the renovations in progress...

A temporary road closure on Eighth Street

Earlier in the week, a reader sent along a photo of this "road" closure for Eighth Street...

So I headed that way to see what this was going to be about. Turned out workers were hoisted up something or another to the under-renovation St. Brigid's at Avenue B...

...and then the crew trashed the sign afterwards ... which means the road will be open then after all this weekend...

At the St. Brigid School flea market

Earlier this morning, we mentioned the flea market at the St. Brigid School... And Dave on 7th stopped by, describing it as "genuine LES."

With plentiful curling irons for sale...

... it also provides an opportunity to see more of the school here on Avenue B and Seventh Street.

Today in flea markets

Seventh Street and Avenue B. Just walk toward the woman ringing the bell. And let me know if it's worth going to...

Work moves to the backside of St. Brigid's

The renovations continue at St. Brigid's on Eighth Street and Avenue B. Workers put up scaffolding on the church's backside last week...

Meanwhile, the crew continues to rebuild the church's northern wall...

Oh, and some bonus photos that I took back in early January. Don't you miss the snow?





Previous EV Grieve St. Brigid's coverage here.

'Nobody knows you until you’re dead'

More details continue to emerge about Grace Farrell, the 35-year-old homeless woman who a friend found dead under the scaffolding at St. Brigid's early Sunday morning.

Bob Arihood first reported that a woman died of a drug overdose in Tompkins Square Park last Thursday. Her name was Danielle. According to the Times today, there's a connection between Danielle and Grace. English, a mutual friend of the women, told the Times that Grace helped give Danielle CPR while an ambulance was arriving.

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that results from Grace's autopsy had not been released.

As the Times noted, "if her death turns out to be from the cold, then she would be the first person to freeze to death on the city streets this winter, according to the office of the city’s chief medical examiner."

That's officially. Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless told the Times that, given how brutal this winter has been, "it’s hard to know exactly how many people might have died from hypothermia, or cold-related causes."

Meanwhile, as English said to the Times: "Nobody knows you until you’re dead. That's the God's honest truth."

Grace Farrell, 35

The Daily News has more on Grace, the homeless woman found dead on Avenue B Sunday morning:

She came from Ireland half a life ago, a blue-eyed 17-year-old determined to make a splash in New York's art scene with her colorful portraits and vivid landscapes.

On Sunday morning — years after her life started to go bad in a haze of alcohol and a lousy marriage — Grace Farrell, 35, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of St. Brigid's Church on Avenue B in the East Village.

Her body was ice-cold from sleeping one too many nights on the street.

She spent her last night alive on a bed of cardboard in a church alcove. Thin blankets barely sheltered her from the brutal winter weather.

Read the whole article here.

Previously.

A candle for Grace on Avenue B

We've received several e-mails since our post this morning about a DOA found on Avenue B between Seventh Street and Eighth Street under the scaffolding at St. Brigid's. Several people have said that the victim's name is a homeless woman named Grace. Police sources have said no foul play was suspected in her death.

Tonight at the scene, someone set up a lone candle to mark the spot where she died...

Updated. 11:05 p.m. Colin Moynihan has more on the story at the Times:

A woman found dead on an East Village sidewalk Sunday morning was known to several people in Tompkins Square Park only by a first name, Grace. She was a regular in and around the park, they added, and often slept outside.

A man who said he had befriended her in the past few days said he had called for an ambulance on Sunday morning when he was unable to wake her.

“She was a very beautiful person,” said the man, who identified himself only as Tony, “and she had a beautiful heart.”

Noted

On the St. Brigid's plywood on Avenue B.

Another brick in the wall at St. Brigid's

This past summer, workers removed the entire northern wall at St. Brigid's here on Avenue B and Eighth Street... From what we can tell walking by the under-extensive-renovation church of late...




...workers are in the process of putting in a new wall on the Eighth Street side of the church...

Previous EV Grieve St. Brigid's coverage here.

The work continues at St. Brigid's

There have been several "alarming rumors," according to The Villager, about the renovations at St. Brigid's on Avenue B and Eighth Street....I walked by the site earlier this week.... and there was a lot of work going on...Still continues to look like a major operation....

Remembering what St. Brigid's looks like

Seems like forever since we last saw St. Brigid's on Avenue B at Eighth Street with the scaffolding and sidewalk shed, etc.... Here's a shot (via) from 2000 or so...



And from the NYPL digital archives... a view of the church in 1928...



...and 1935...



Photos from NYPL. 1928-35

St. Brigid's in need of more divine intervention?

The renovation of St. Brigid’s is more extensive than expected, The Villager reports this week.

Lincoln Anderson reports that "a number of alarming rumors have been circulating in the neighborhood about the project, including that the $10 million restoration fund for the church has already been spent and that there is a significant cost overrun; that the church’s windows’ being removed in 2006 caused water damage that weakened the walls, requiring extra work to shore up the foundations; and that both the north and south walls need to be removed and totally rebuilt so that the eastern wall can be tied into a stable structure."

However, Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the New York Catholic Archdiocese, said the rumors are untrue. He also denied that the church is seeking more donations to complete the renovations.

In addition, Zwilling didn't offer an anticipated completion date for the church.

Last summer, Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, told me the work was expected to be wrapped up in the summer of 2011. Looking at the church today, that time line doesn't seem very likely.



Previous EV Grieve St. Brigid's coverage here.

St. Brigid's at night

The renovations continue... workers removed the north wall and are replacing it... when I look at it a certain way, I think I see the side of a cruise ship...





And here's a day shot for a different perspective...

The 'immense' work continues at St. Brigid's

A few weeks ago, I noted the ongoing work at St. Brigid's on Avenue B and Eighth Street... from my untrained eye, it appeard that the entire northside wall had been removed... I checked in with Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, for an update...



"The work going on is immense. The floor in the basement has not been poured yet ... but yes, the north wall was dismantled."



And as for a finish date: Work is currently scheduled to wrap up next summer.

Previously.

Work is getting real serious at St. Brigid's

The amount of scaffolding continues to increase at St. Brigid's, on Avenue B at Eighth Street...



Meanwhile, looking up from Eighth Street, it almost looks as if the entire northern side of the church has been removed...




That was the side with the enormous crack in the foundation...(previously!)