144 Covert St. CB, PS

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former convent, now part of Pilgrim Baptist Church complex
Address: 144 Covert Street
Cross Streets: Evergreen and Central Avenues
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: probably 1890s, early 20th century
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival with Arts and Crafts details
Architect: probably Schickel & Ditmars
Other Buildings by Architect: German Catholic churches, convents and schools throughout Brooklyn and NYC. Also much of Lenox Hill Hospital’s original buildings.
Landmarked: No

The story: Germans began immigrating to the United States after 1848, when civil war among the German city-states caused thousands to flee their homeland. They settled in many different parts of the United States, and a great many came to Manhattan and to Brooklyn. A very large and increasingly successful community settled in the Eastern District, which included Bushwick, parts of Williamsburg and eastern Bedford.

Many of the new Brooklynites were Lutheran, and established many Lutheran churches, but equally large amounts were Catholic. They petitioned the Irish Catholic Church hierarchy to establish parishes in their communities, and the first Bishop of Brooklyn, John McLaughlin, was more than happy to do so. With large Irish, German and Polish communities springing up in Brooklyn in the mid-19th century and later, Catholics were the fastest growing denomination in the city.

In 1887, a group of German Catholics in this part of Bushwick were seeking to establish a local church. They were mostly from Bavaria, and wanted to honor the Vierzehn Nothelfer, the Fourteen Holy Helpers of Bavarian lore, a group of saints whose intercession had saved the people from disease and the plague in the Middle Ages. Bishop Laughlin authorized them to establish the Church of Fourteen Holy Martyrs.

The congregation began in wooden church, but soon established a large combination school and church building on Central Avenue and Covert Street. The school was to be run by the Sisters of St. Dominic, and a rectory was built for them on Covert Street. The building materials on both building are similar, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they were designed by the same architect.

I think the architect may be William Schickel, who had his own named firm, as well as a partnership with Isaac Ditmars as Schickel & Ditmars. Alone and with partners, Schickel had a strong partnership with the Catholic Archdiocese of New York and its counterpart in Brooklyn. Schickel designed churches, schools, convents and hospital buildings for the Church for his entire career.

He also worked very closely with the Sisters of St. Dominic. In investigating the origins of this building, I found that every building connected with the Sisters in the late part of the 19th century was designed by Schickel, so I think he, or his firm probably designed both the convent, and later, the church. The convent building has a great Arts & Crafts style roofline, with symmetrical shingled dormers and a small dormer in the center, which along with the entrance below, forms a nice visual division of the building.

The building appears on a map from 1903, before the church/school was built. You can see that the wooden church still stood behind the convent. The church next door on the corner wasn’t built until much later in the 20th century. William Schickel died in 1907, but Isaac Ditmars, who took over the partnership at his death, didn’t pass away until 1934. It is quite possible they were responsible for both.

In 1976, the diocese merged 14 Martyrs with a nearby parish, St. Martin of Tours. They then sold the entire complex, which now included the church/school building, an adjoining church annex built in the 1960s, and the convent building, to the Pilgrim Baptist Church, which still own the facilities today.

(Photograph:Christopher Bride for Property Shark)

GMAP

1907 map, New York Public Library
1907 map, New York Public Library
1980s tax photo. Municipal Archives
1980s tax photo. Municipal Archives
Photo: Google Maps
Photo: Google Maps
Former Church of the 14 Holy Martyrs, now Pilgrim Baptist Church Church and School. Photo: nycago.org
Former Church of the 14 Holy Martyrs, now Pilgrim Baptist Church Church and School. Photo: nycago.org

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