Waiting for the End

It’s a sad undertaking: a visit to the former church of St Vincent de Paul on a cold and rainy day in February. The neoclassical facade of the 1930’s stands forlorn on West 23rd street surrounded by nondescript chain stores and, more often than not since a blast rocked the surroundings two years ago, by empty storefronts. Statues, windows and welcome boards have been stripped away; a bum pulls down his trousers on the steps. It’s a sad end for a parish that, as the French national church of New York, once enjoyed a certain degree of celebrity in the city – even if located in a neighborhood that, until the last few decades, was out of the way and mildly disreputable as well.

(Above and below)The neoclassical facade of 1939 is much more recent than the rest of the church.

By 2016 all appeals against its closure and sale had been rejected by the Vatican.  In that year too an explosion knocked out the facade windows of the closed church. And finally, also in 2016, the property was sold to a “hotelier”;  in 2017 a new owner took over.  But as of today the church still stands – eloquent testimony to the post-Vatican II progress of Catholicism in this city.

(Above) Boards, like a strange dead eye, where the rose-shaped window looked out on the street.

For a description of the church before its closing see HERE.