Building of the Day: 225 Sixth Avenue

The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.

Address: 225 6th Avenue at Carroll Street
Name: Roman Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier of the Indies
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1900-1904
Architectural Style: Early English Gothic
Architect: Thomas Houghton
Landmarked: No

The second entry in our Christmas BOTD Church week is St. Francis Xavier Church. The parish was founded by its first pastor, Reverend David J. Hickey in 1886.

He named the church after his alma mater, St. Francis Xavier College in Manhattan, which is named for an early Jesuit missionary to the Far East. A nice sized church was erected on this corner of Carroll and 6th Ave, but by the end of the century, the parish had outgrown the building.

The old church was moved to President St, and a new building was begun in 1900. The architect, Thomas Houghton, was the son-in-law of Patrick Keely, the most prolific Catholic Church architect in America, and Houghton worked in his office early in his career.

Before this church, he had designed the very fine Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church (1891-95), on Throop Avenue in Stuyvesant Heights, and after St. Francis Xavier, would go on to design St. Agnes Church on Sackett and Hoyt St. (1905), which in many ways resembles this church.

St. Francis Xavier is built of granite ashlar (rough cut) stone blocks, trimmed in Indiana limestone. It’s a very beautifully designed and built church. The bell tower, complete with excellent gargoyles, has a 25 note set of chimes, installed in 1932.

The gargoyles come down the sides, almost to 2nd story height, at the side of the church, allowing for some great close ups of their fierce faces. Houghton was extremely active in overseeing all the details of the church, inside and out.

He designed the polychrome decor of the pillars, having them made of scagiola, plasterwork that mimics marble down to the last swirl of color. The stained glass panels represent St. Francis in his missionary work, and many of the other details were added as years went by.

The church also has a huge great organ brought from the original church, and expanded upon. Interestingly enough, although the first pastor and his entire congregation were Irish, there are no Irish saints or iconography in the church.

Houghton built a very English church with French fleur-de-lis decoration and Italian plasterwork. The church still has 142 of Houghton’s original drawings.

[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]