St. Monica Church

The Church of St. Monica, commonly referred to as St. Monica's, is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 413 East 79th Street, Manhattan, New York City. The parish was established in 1879.HistoryThe fourth Catholic parish on the Upper East Side, St. Monica's was founded by Fr. John Treanor, pastor of the Church of St. Lawrence O'Toole (now the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola). Fr. James J. Dougherty was appointed the first pastor, and in 1880 he began conducting Mass over a feed store at 404 East 78th Street. The following year, he purchased land for the construction of the church and school. Construction of the first church building was completed in 1883. In 1892, the address was listed as 409 E 79th Street.The Rev. John J. Boyle served as acting rector at St. Monica's before becoming the founding pastor of St. Luke's Church (Bronx, New York).BuildingsThe current Gothic Revival church building was erected in 1906 to the designs of the esteemed Roman Catholic church-building architectural firm of Schickel & Ditmars.The Rev. Arthur J. Kenny, rector, had a three- and four-story brick school and convent with tile roof at 410 East 80th Street, built in 1926 to designs of Thomas Dunn of 37 West 57th Street for $120,000. A three-story convent at 405–413 East 79th Street was built in 1955 to designs by Brown-Guenther-Booss of 1860 Broadway for $275,000.