St. John's Church

The Church of St. John is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 3021 Kingsbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York City. The parish was established in 1877 and has had long ties with the Religious of Jesus and Mary as their main base in New York.On November 2, 2014 the parish was merged with that of the Church of Visitation.Parish historyFounded in the 1860s as a mission attached to a Yonkers parish, and later to the Jesuits of Fordham University (founded as St. John’s College), Mass was originally celebrated in an old schoolhouse on Spuyten Duyvil Hill. Upon the 1869 founding of St. Elizabeth Parish in Fort Washington by the Rev. Cornelius O’Callaghan, St. John’s became a mission of that immediate Fort Washington parish. A St. John's Church was listed at 2911 Church Street, in 1892. In 1914, it was recorded, that the "Rev. Francis Xavier Kelly, successor to Farther O’Dwyer, is assisted by the Rev. Joseph MacCarthy."BuildingsIn 1870, Rev. Henry A. Brann was appointed to take charge of the mission. During his 16-year pastorate, he purchased land and built a small timber-framed church, which was dedicated by John Cardinal McCloskey on December 4, 1877, establishing the parish of St. John. The Rev. Edward O’Gorman was appointed the first resident pastor where he remained for 18 years and during that time greatly increased the church’s property holdings. Rev. O’Gorman “removed” the 1877 church in 1893 and there built half of the present church’s basement at a cost of $21,000. The following pastor, the Rev. Daniel H. O’Dwyer, converted the old church in a well-equipped hall. Rev. O’Dwyer erected the present church. “It is built after the Tudor style, and has a beautiful paining, a copy of Brumidi’s ‘Crucifixion,’ above the altar. The basement contains a chapel, hall, theater, club-rooms, and gymnasium.”