The stately Gothic Victorian-style structure at the corner of Bramhall and Grand Street is St. Patrick’s R.C. Church. It is the largest church in Jersey City and the third largest in the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey. The church is not only known for its role in the community but also for the theater within its elementary school that was placed on the state and national registers of historic places in 1980.
It was designed by the architect Patrick C. Keely of Brooklyn who had emigrated to the US from Ireland in 1842 . Keely reportedly designed over six hundred churches in the United States and thirty churches in New Jersey that also include St. Bridget’s and St. Michael’s R. C. Churches in Jersey City.
St. Patrick’s Church was constructed with blue flintstone taken from the railroad “cut” in the Greenville section of Jersey City by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The “cut” is presently used by the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail System. The silver-colored hammered granite from the Hallowell quarries in Maine highlights the door jambs, windows, buttress caps and cornices. The interior of the Gothic church features ribbed vaulting, with sixteen granite columns support the clerestory walls, a nave of 86 feet, side aisles, channel, side chapels, woodwork of black walnut and white ash, and stained glass windows, but no transept. The extreme length of the church is 272 feet and the extreme width is 138 feet; the spire rises to a height of 225 feet with a base 33 feet square.
http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/S_Pages/St_Patricks_Church_Complex.htm
For a wonderful series of photographs of Saint Patrick’s interior go to
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2620703580031860892VMQoaN
About The Building
Architect(s)
- Patrick Keely
Architectural Style
- Gothic Revival
Interior Designer(s)
Fabricator(s) of Windows
- Franz Meyer
- Zettler
Bells
- 1919 - The thirteen bells in the church tower were donated by the congregation and are inscribed with the names of the nineteen soldiers from the congregation who died during World War I.
Notable Works of Art
- Stained glass - Original stained glass destroyed by the "Black Tom" explosion in 1916. Replacement windows were made by Franz Meyer
Renovations
Current Status: In use
Interior Pictures
Exterior Pictures
Year Opened: 1877