Building of the Day: 529 Fifth Avenue

Address: 529 Fifth Ave, between 59th and 60th Street
Name: Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Neighborhood: Sunset Park
Year Built: Lower Church-1905, Upper Church -1925-8
Architectural Style: Romanesque
Architect: Franz Joseph Untersee
Landmarked: No

Why chosen: The basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a huge complex taking up a block long and wide chunk of Sunset Park. It consists of the Upper and Lower Church (the basilica itself), as well as the rectory, convent, and school. OLPH was founded by the Redemptorist Fathers, a Roman Catholic order dedicated to working with the poor. The location was originally called Irish Hill, and its early parishioners were the local Irish immigrants who came to Sunset Park to work in the nearby factories, docks, and shipyards. The order paid $40K for the entire block in 1893, and held its first services in a small wooden church at this location. In 1905, the Lower Church, which is on the ground floor of the larger church building, opened. The worship space there is larger than many other local churches. In 1925, the cornerstone was laid for the Upper Church, which was finished in 1928. The school had opened in 1903. The church was declared a minor basilica in 1969, one of only 16 minor basilicas in the United States. (There are only 5 major basilicas, and they are all in Rome.) The Upper Church is immense, and along from masses and weddings, is used for ordinations, and often the large funerals of police and fire personnel, especially those lost in the line of duty. It is the largest Catholic Church in Brooklyn. Franz Joseph Untersee, the architect, is better known in the Boston area, where he lived and practiced. He was born in Switzerland, studied there and in Germany, and came to the Boston area in 1882. His specialty was ecclesiastic architecture, but he also designed banks, public baths and private houses. He did a lot of work for the Redemptorists, including a similarly large complex in the Back Bay of Boston, called the Mission Church complex, a Boston landmark, as well as several other Redemptorist Churches in Massachusetts, and their headquarters upstate. He died in 1927, before the entire church was completed. Today, there is still a small Irish presence in the parish, but the majority of the parishioners are now Hispanic and Asian. The church has services in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Vietnamese. Surprisingly enough, this church is not better known. As large and beautiful as it is, and with the distinction of being a basilica, it is rarely talked about in terms of Brooklyn church architecture and neighborhoods. It is not even mentioned in the AIA Guide to NYC. Another piece of trivia: Chuck Connors, the actor best known for his role as The Rifleman in the 1960’s, was an altar boy here.

(Photo: nycago.org)

(Photo: Interior of Upper Church, showing the pipe organ. nycago.org)