St. Nicholas' Church (New York City)

St. Nicholas Kirche is a former Roman Catholic church located at 127 East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue in the Alphabet City/East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The church, known in German as Deutsche Römisch-Katholische St. Nicholas Kirche ("St. Nicholas Roman Catholic German Church"), was the national parish for the local German-speaking population.First church (1833-1848)FoundingThe parish was founded in 1833 by the Austrian priest Father Johann Stephen Raffeiner (1785–1861) as the first and thus oldest German-language Catholic parish in New York City.Father Raffeiner was actively engaged in establishing the parish. Back then a large German-speaking colony was located east of the Bowery, necessitating the establishment of religious services in German. Raffeiner first temporarily rented a carpenter shop on Delancey Street for services. He later leased a former meeting house of the Anabaptists located at Delancey and Pitt Streets, making a formal beginning for the first congregation of German-speaking Catholics.