In the mid-20th Century, the street map of Fort Greene was drastically changed when multiple housing projects such as the Raymond Ingersoll, University Towers and Walt Whitman Houses were all constructed between Willoughby Street, Park Avenue, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Fort Greene Park. Numerous streets were eliminated and others renamed.
The Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, a magnificent twin towered, Romanesque building, was built as St. Edward Roman Catholic Church between 1891 and 1906; the parish of St. Edward had some difficulty raising funds and so the building, designed by architect John Deery, wasn’t opened until the latter year, a good 15 years after the cornerstone was laid. It originally served a bustling Irish congregation that dwindled as the decades wore on and Fort Greene slipped into economic depression, a far cry from the gentrified enclave it is today. Tenements that once held the population that worshiped at St. Edward’s were razed for housing projects that were populated by fewer Catholics.
The church was built on what was originally called Canton Street but was renamed to St. Edward’s Street, such was the church’s domination of its immediate location. When other streets were demapped around it, St. Edward’s Street survived. Walt Whitman Library, across the street from the church, was also allowed to survive. In 1942, St. Edward’s merged with St. Michael’s Church and was thereupon known by both names.
The ill-fated church’s management could not adequately maintain the combined parish and finally, by 2010, the dwindling congregation was transferred to Sacred Heart Church on Adelphi Street. In 2023, the beautiful church was torn down and plans call for an 11-story condominium to replace it.
There is one more reason to regret the church’s destruction. Its claim to fame regarding the Myrtle Avenue El is that you could still see the el, sort of, when you entered. The church replaced its altar and cross in 1972, with the aid of artists Carol Dykeman O’Connor and Robert Zacharian with a new one built with a few of the old girders spared when the Myrtle Avenue El was demolished. Did the altar and cross survive, or did they, and the last of the el, go to the scrap heap? [Note: see Comments for possible news about this]
Once again…sick transit, Gloria!
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5/30/23