St. Brigid's reopens: 'We are very blessed to have the church restored'

As you know, St. Brigid's reopens today at 5 with a special invite-only mass for parishioners presided by Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan. We asked Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, if he ever thought he'd see this day after the church on Avenue B and East Eighth Street closed in 2001:

I must admit there were times when I felt very low and discouraged. But this is the way the Lord works to test your faith. He will bring you almost to the edge and how one respond defines who you are. Although I was very discouraged, I never lost faith and I never got angry. A trap many fell into. The Lord put many people in my path. All served a purpose, different talents and skills came togather to achive this goal ... We are very blessed to have the church restored.

Previously on EV Grieve:
13 keys dates in the 165-year history of St. Brigid's, reopening on Sunday

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.

The stained-glass windows at St. Brigid's

Have you seen the newish stained-glass windows at St. Brigid's here on East Eighth Street at Avenue B?

Meanwhile, as you may have noticed outside St. Brigid's in recent weeks, there are a handful of union picketers...

Matt LES_Miserable spoke with the picketers last week ... and they claim that "the contractor is paying poor wages and using non-union labor." As The Villager points out this week, they are protesting against DanMar Electric, the subcontractor of record, doing all the electrical work on St. Brigid's — not this specific construction site.

Speaking of The Villager, Roland Legiardi-Laura files a lengthy piece on the good, the bad and the ugly of the 164-year-old church's renovation process. He also provides the history of how we got to this renovation phase.

Per the article:

So what do we have to look forward to after 164 years of striving? A really fine initiative that is probably a million dollars shy of becoming one of the best church restorations this city has ever seen: a living example of history, community and philanthropy combining to right a wrong that had been done to a neighborhood and a parish...

Curiosity about the anonymous buyer behind the sale of the Boys' Club Harriman Clubhouse

Last Wednesday, news arrived that "a wealthy, anonymous individual" had purchased the the Boys' Club Harriman Clubhouse on Avenue A and 10th Street.

We had heard rumors in previous weeks of such a transaction; and that the Boys' Club would continue to lease space here for another year.

As for the buyer, per Crain's:

Paul Wolf, a real estate broker and adviser who specializes in working with nonprofits and who represented the foundation, said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous. Wolf said the buyer was planning to sell the property, potentially at a substantial loss, to a nonprofit that would maintain its civic use.

"The goal is to keep this as a community facility," said Wolf, who is co-president of the firm Denham Wolf. "The intent is to sell it to a nonprofit at a lower price than the purchase price."

As the Daily News noted, "The buyer, who bought the land as a foundation, wants to remain anonymous, according to the sources, one of whom said he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the deal."

The deal here has residents recalling the anonymous donor who came to the rescue of St. Brigid’s on Avenue B and Eighth Street in 2008, sparing the circa-1848 building from demolition and making it possible for the structure to be reopened as a parish church.

Per the Times in May 2008:

The Archdiocese of New York announced on Wednesday that a donor had come forward with an “unexpected but very welcome gift” of $20 million after a private meeting with Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York.

The gift includes $10 million to restore the building, at 119 Avenue B; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish “so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community”; and $8 million to support St. Brigid’s School [ed note: closed now as of June 2019] and other Catholic schools in need.

We never heard definitively, but — via the rumor mill — the leading candidates behind saving the church were Irish-American philanthropist Chuck Feeney, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump and Mel Gibson. (And Matt Dillon!)

Now various residents and readers are searching for clues behind the identity of the person who bought the Boys' Club building, which opened in 1901.

Public records show that the 7-story building was sold to 287 East 10th Street LLC c/o Denham Wolf Real Estate Services for $31.725 million, as per the "Details" document and page 12 of the deed accessed here.

According to public records, Boys' Club Executive Director Stephen Tosh represented the Boys Club in the sale. Carey Thope (or Thorpe) represented 287 East 10th Street LLC. It's unclear at the moment who Thope/Thorpe is. Interestingly enough, 287 East 10th Street LLC is not listed in the Division of Corporations - New York State Department of State database.



So the searching and guessing will continue.

Meanwhile, Sen. Brad Hoylman shared his thoughts on the developments here. He spoke out against a potential sale last fall with several other local elected officials who had concerns about the loss of the services the Boys' Club provides to the neighborhood:

"Whoever this angel investor is, I want to thank them on behalf of our community. They are saving a century-old community facility from being converted into luxury condos or a high-priced hotel, which sadly has been the real estate narrative for the East Village.

While I wish the Boys’ Club had never put the Harriman Clubhouse on the open market in the first place, I’m grateful to them for finding this angel investor that will allow young people and families in our community to continue to benefit from this splendid facility.

I’m hopeful that the unnamed foundation will work with Community Board 3, elected officials, and other local stakeholders to ensure that community organizations have a place in the new building and that the Boys’ Club, which is reportedly taking space in the building, will decide to stay in this location and continue to provide the essential services it offers to boys and young men."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracy theories: Who was the anonymous donor behind St. Brigid's $20 million donation?

More speculation on the 'saint' who saved St. Brigid's

Local elected officials urge Boys' Club officials to postpone sale of the Harriman Clubhouse

Boys' Club of New York selling East Village building; will remain open through June 2019

During noon rally today, local elected officials will seek postponement of Boys' Club building sale

[Updated] Exclusive: The Boys' Club of New York puts the Harriman Clubhouse on the sales market for $32 million

Boys' Club fast tracks sale of East Village clubhouse as final bids are due Oct. 30

RUMOR: The Boys' Club building on 10th and A has a new owner; will remain in use as a nonprofit

A reader offers details about the restoration of St. Brigid's

[Yesterday]

A reader left this comment on our post Wednesday afternoon about St. Brigid's on Avenue B at East Eighth Street....

I’ll try and clear up a few misconceptions as I live near the Church and have been following the process since it began nearly 10 years ago.

1. The Church was never declared a NYC landmark. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission ruled against the request for status by a group of individuals because: a) The Church had been modified too much over the years to determine what exactly was part of the requested status. b) It was in a horrible state of disrepair at the time and its very survival made it a huge risk. c) The Landmarks Commission rarely designates Churches because they change so often and the various entities that own the churches don't want to be designated because it makes it difficult for them to make significant changes. They have a very strong lobby in NYC.

2. The central portion of the facade scaffolding was removed [Wednesday] because the contractor needs to start work on the front stairs. He is hoping his portion of the project (all the major interior and exterior construction) will be completed this summer. Significant work to do still on the two towers, roof, exterior fencing, the back, and the interior.

Once their work is done the "liturgical package" work begins: including all interior furnishings —pews, alter, and hopefully the original Keely carved organ. Keely was the original architect and when the Archdiocese tried to demolish the Church '04-'06, the City courts mandated the Archdiocese carefully remove and preserve all interior artifacts. Now no one seems to know where the organ and many other artifacts have gone. a tremendous pity and in contravention of Court orders. The organ was a beautiful piece of work.

Once the liturgical package is complete, the church has to go through a number of city inspections and approvals. My guess is that St. Brigid's might open up for "business" sometime in the early-mid fall. The new parish priest has already moved into the adjacent rectory.

3. The "anonymous" donor is still a mystery. No one has stepped forward to admit making the original $20 million donation, which most likely grew by an additional $10 million after work began and the architects realized they would have to completely redo the outside & foundation. Of the original $20 million, $10 million was dedicated to the restoration, $8 million was given to St. Brigid's school next door and $2 million was put in a church maintenance fund.

Some have speculated that it was Chuck Feeny, multimillionaire Irish-American philanthropist, who made his fortune with duty-free shops and started the Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation. Both he and the foundation have steadfastly denied this. Easy to see why. Others suggest that the Archdiocese itself anonymously "found" the money in order to stave off a confrontation with the New York State Supreme Court where a final case was pending back in 2006. If the Church lost that case it would have had tremendous implications for the ownership of Church property throughout the entire country.

4. There are many good things the current restoration architects, Acheson and Doyle, have done with their budget to bring the church back to the original vision and design of Keely, and execution by the Famine-Irish boat wrights from the local EV community who helped build it back in 1848. They have restored the original brownstone facade, re-made the original windows, made beautiful replacement stain-glass windows (after the Archdiocese willfully destroyed the original hand painted windows in the summer of 2006, in an effort to show its strength and disdain for the community and hasten the demolition process).

The courts issued an injunction stopping the demolition pending the outcome of the case back then. They have painstakingly restored the interior and replaced the old rotting roof with a batten seam, all-copper roof. But they have failed to add back the original 50-foot high steeples on each tower, which could easily be done. And they will not restore the cast-iron fencing around the church — the exact same fencing used and still surrounding Grace Church on Broadway and 10th st.

This will be replaced with an aluminum fence the contractor assures is quite elegant. They did a slap-dash job on the facade of the rectory, quite beautiful originally. But they have done wonderful work supporting the rear wall of the building, the cause of all the structural trouble. It began peeling away from the rest of the church about 30 years ago after an adjacent building was demolished. They have restored and refaced with copper the Crucifix atop the church, and they will replace the original pentacles that were on each corner of the towers. However, they don't seem to be adding back the carved details along the top front ridge of the peeked roof and no one knows if they are planning to return the huge bronze bell removed for "repair" over a year ago.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.

Looking at the Church of Saint Emeric on East 13th Street

Catholic churches are coming and going these days in the East Village. Parishioners held the last mass this past Sunday at Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street. (The Villager has a nice farewell feature in this week's issue.)

The Catholic Archdiocese is selling the church property, which includes the Don Bosco Salesians rectory adjacent to the church and the church's former school on East 11th Street. No official word just yet on the new owner.

Meanwhile, renovations continue at St. Brigid's on Avenue B at East Eighth Street.

And then there the Church of Saint Emeric. As The Villager first reported in June, St. Emeric’s, built in 1950 at 740 E. 13th St. at Avenue D, will close and merge with St. Brigid's.

Per The Villager, Father Lorenzo Ato, priest in charge at St. Emeric for the past four years, will be the pastor of the new parish and has already moved into the Brigid's rectory.

Joseph Zwilling, archdiocese spokesperson, said there weren't any immediate plans for the St. Emeric’s church building or the two-story parochial school built in 1952 next door on East 12th Street and Avenue D.

In any event, I figured this was a good time to visit St. Emeric's ... located down a rather lonely stretch of East 13th Street, which dead ends at the Con Ed power plant. The church sits next to the Manhattan Pumping Station that's currently being refurbished ...

... and across the street from the Con Ed power plant...

On the morning that I walked by here, there were a handful of men huddled atop the sidewalk bridge sleeping...

... and here's a look from the East 12th Street side...

The church building itself is fairly unremarkable (I haven't been inside) and the chunk of real estate is in an unglamorous spot — surrounded by the Con Ed plant, pumping station and public housing. Not sure what would work here outside of some utilitarian purpose or nonprofit use. In other words, no dorms or condos.

But!

Things being what they are these days in Manhattan, I could see some enterprising restaurateur open an eatery and offer an East-River-to-table small plates Tasting Menu for thrill-seekers who desire a real "gritty" East Village meal (don't worry — the eel with be flown in fresh daily from Nihonbashi) ... or a developer launch a boutique hotel with Super Charged Weekend Packages for travelers who yearn what it's like to work at a power plant. Other authentic "street" touches include the housekeeping staff who push their supplies in imitation C-Town grocery carts (for sale in the gift shop for $1,695) and the bar that sells craft beers in brown paper bags.

Yeah, anyway — this is the Church of Saint Emeric

How Grace Farrell came to die outside St. Brigid's in February 2011

[EVG photo from February 2011]

On Feb. 19, 2011, a woman froze to death in her makeshift bedding on Avenue B between Seventh Street and Eighth Street in a doorway at the under-renovation St. Brigid's.

In the days that followed, there were several media accounts of the woman, Grace Farrell. From the Daily News:

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.

There's now a new documentary on RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland titled Grace & Emmanuel. The special documents the lives of Farrell and Emmanuel Touhey, who grew up together at St. Vincent's Children’s Home in Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland. Touhey emigrated to the United States a few years before Farrell. Their lives took very different paths, as Touhey became an editor at C-SPAN's website.

In Washington D.C., Emmanuel read the news in the New York papers. Although he hadn’t seen Grace since his time in St. Vincent’s Children’s Home, he wanted her to be remembered as more than just another grim statistic.

“I think despite how hard she tried and how much she hoped to live a life that she wanted to live for her son and for her family, the odds were against her I think from the beginning.”

You can listen to the episode here. There's an accompanying article at The Irish Times here.

Amid an influx of asylum seekers in the East Village, elected officials urge the city to open more reticketing centers

Photos last week by Stacie Joy

City Council leaders say the Adams administration needs to create more reticketing centers in NYC to meet the demand created by the Mayor's 30- and 60-day shelter limit stays. 

The letter, signed by District 2 Councilmember Carlina Rivera, House Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, and Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, calls the situation at the city's lone center, located at the former St. Brigid School on Seventh Street and Avenue B, "untenable and increasingly unmanageable." 

The lines here are only getting longer as more asylum seekers arrive here to reapply for a cot assignment or shelter location. Those in the line have been evicted due to the city's shelter limit, implemented late last year, which is 60 days for families and 30 days for individuals.

As previously reported, the long lines often result in many people being unable to enter before the site closes, forcing some to sleep outside the building or in Tompkins Square Park, where the city removed the public restrooms on Jan. 9.

Here's more from the letter: 

With more than one center and a consideration for locations in each borough, the City can ensure people do not stand on line in the cold without access to even basic facilities like bathrooms. Multiple locations would also ensure that people are closer to culturally competent, community-based programs and services. 

Volunteers with LESReady!, a Lower East Side nonprofit with organizing and service-provision experience, have identified four potential sites in Council District 2 alone that could support overflow pending the City's approval. It is important that we provide the same services available at St. Brigid's at these additional locations and ask that the managing agencies also do more to provide translation services for both those seeking asylum and the local police precincts who help with the crowds present. 

And... 

Currently, having one reticketing center has not only led to physical capacity concerns, it has created a burden on the adjacent local community and its public spaces. Resources are needed to keep up with quality of life issues. It appears that efficiency at St. Brigid's has been in decline, with travel hardships and the overall cost-effectiveness of the process in place in question. Public safety concerns have increased without a support network available even locally to those waiting. 

Line-cutting has been an ongoing issue. Other problems have been observed by officials and residents ... which likely prompted this newly posted Reticketing Center Code of Conduct. (The city published the Code in multiple languages.) 

The 18 points covered include "ignoring directions from staff and City partners" and "setting fire to anything."

The letter concludes with the Council leaders urging the city to act "quickly and compassionately in creating a better system for the thousands of people coming to St. Brigid's for assistance."

Since October, the former school has operated as a Reticketing Center overseen by the NYC Emergency Management (formerly the Office of Emergency Management or OEM).

According to published reports, the city has spent more than $3 billion on housing and services for asylum seekers since the spring of 2022. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

Observations on the growing humanitarian crisis with asylum seekers in the East Village

Here are 17 current East Village construction projects, bringing in 534 new residential units

Does it seem as if there's a lot of new construction going on in the East Village these days?

To me, there's more going on now than any other time in the five years that I've done this site.

So here are all the current projects in one post.

But a few things first. I didn't include commercial ventures such as the Hyatt Union Square ... or other non-commercial jobs such as St. Brigid's (but I did include 51 Astor Place — mostly because of its size and scope and neighborhood-changing potential).

I also didn't include rumored construction sites, such as Mary Help of Christians, which likely faces the wrecking ball one day... or partial building rehabs...or jobs that haven't started in earnest just yet, such as 33 Second Ave. and 227 E. Seventh St.

Anyway.

• 219 E. 13th St. (aka, The Mystery Lot)
What: 8 stories, 82 units of residential. Plus retail on the East 14th Street side.

..and the plywood went up on the East 14th Street this week...

• 74-84 Third Ave. at East 12th Street
What: 9 stories, 94 units of residential. Plus retail.

• 51 Astor Place (aka The Death Star)
What: 12 stories, all commercial; some educational use.

[Bobby Williams]

• 27 E. Seventh St.
What: Interior demolition and gut rehab of former rectory for the pastor and priests of the Order of Saint Basil the Great; later the illegal hotel the Village Inn. Conversion to residential. Per the DOB, there will be 11 units of residential.

[From April]

• 21 E. First St. (aka the former Mars Bar) at Second Avenue
What: 12 stories, 65 units of residential. Plus retail.

• 154 Second Ave.
What: Conversion of former funeral home into residential; plus addition of 3 new floors. 12 units of residential (still confirming final number). Plus retail.

[Terry Howell]

• 331. E. Sixth St. (aka Chez Schwimm)
What: Demolition of formerly historic townhouse; new 6-floor single-family mansion for David Schwimmer

• 427 E. 12th St.
What: 6 story, 11 units.

• 130 E. Seventh St. at Avenue A
What: Per the DOB: "Convert portion of existing commercial building to general residential use on floors 4 thru 7 ... reconstruct portion of existing penthouse."

• 315 E. 10th St.
What: Conversion from nonprofit use to residential. 9 units of residential. Plus one additional floor for penthouse apartment.

[Bobby Williams]

• 526 E. Fifth St.
What: Conversion of three-story multiple-dwelling building to a single-family residence

• 185 Avenue B at East 12th Street
What: 7 stories, 40 units of residential. Plus community facility and church.

[Demolition of the former theater via Kimberly Fritschy on Facebook]

• 542 East Fifth St. at Avenue B
What: Conversion of former Cabrini Nursing Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation into residential apartments (90 units). Plus retail.

• 710 E. Ninth St. (aka the Henry Street Settlement Day Care #3 building)
What: Conversion of former school into community facility plus 46 units of housing to serve homeless young adults and young adults aging out of the foster care system

[Bobby Williams]

• 316-318 E. Third St.
What: Demolition of formerly historic townhouse; construction of 7 stories, 33 units of residential

• 326-328 E. Fourth St.
What: Conversion of former two-building artist collective; addition of two floors and 18 units of residential.

...and the doorway...

[EVG reader Steven]

• 101 Avenue D
What: A community facility, the HQ for the Lower Eastside Girls Club, retail space and 78 affordable and market-rate rental units of residential.



If my math is any good (not really), then this makes 17 construction projects ... with an estimated addition of 534 residential units...(and various retail space).

Any construction projects/developments that I missed?

It's official, it's over: St. Brigid's won't be torn down

Well, this was really just a technicality...The Archdiocese had filed a motion to to render the court case moot. And moot it is. The Committee to Save St. Brigid's received their letter of withdrawal from the Court of Appeals. "It is officially over," Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church, wrote on Monday. Now if the church, at Eighth Street and Avenue B, can just get the power restored....

Summer is an "ideal time" for St. Brigid's renovations

In his most recent letter to friends and supporters (dated June 19), Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, said that the construction manager, architects and contractors recently met to plan the first stage of the renovations, "which should start shortly." As he noted, "The summer months when the school is closed is an ideal time for the major construction." He continued: "I am confident that in ... no time St. Brigid's Church will be restored to her original splendor and we will ... realize what we almost lost."

Previously.

Here's one of the towers at St. Brigid's

Workers removed more of the tarp/netting on St. Brigid's yesterday... showing the work under way on the tower on the East Eighth Street side of the church...



Photos by Bobby Williams.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A reader offers details about the restoration of St. Brigid's

Report: Demolition permit for St. Brigid’s is still in effect

Could the church still be torn down?

The Villager reports:

A demolition permit for St. Brigid’s Church on Avenue B was still in effect last week, despite the promise in May of this year of $20 million from an anonymous benefactor to restore the 1849 building and the East Village parish that the Catholic Archdioceses of New York dissolved in 2004.
But an archdiocese spokesperson said last week that architects were preparing plans and contractors were drawing up documents for building permits.
“We know the demolition permit has to be withdrawn and we decided to do it all at once,” said Joseph Zwilling. “There is no construction date and we’ll make an announcement when we have one.”
Nevertheless, Edwin Torres, president of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s, the group that went to court in 2005 to prevent the church building’s demolition, said last week that the committee was troubled that the demolition permit was still on file at the Department of Buildings.

Yes, we should all be troubled.

Save the date/reminder...And the Archdiocese now has half of the money to restore St. Brigid's

Meanwhile, Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church, had the following news to report:

This year will bring a lot of change to St. Brigid’s Church. We would like inform you that work is progressing. There is currently on site testing going on. We will continue to monitor the situation.

The Archdiocese has informed us on Dec 16, 2008 the second installment (5 million) was received, a total of 10 million has been received and is earmarked for the restoration of the church. The Archdiocese will also be filing a motion to to render our case moot. We will inform everyone of the outcome through the website. The case is scheduled to be heard in The Court of Appeals on February 11, 2009.

The lights are back on inside St. Brigid's

As noted yesterday, the renovation of St. Brigid's has begun -- the sidewalk shed along Avenue B is back ... And, last night, we had to walk over to check on the progress ... and we saw one of the loveliest scenes that we've seen in many years (since the church closed in 2001?) ... the lights inside St. Brigid's were on last night...peeking through the boarded-up windows... the photos here really don't do it justice...