St. John the Evangelist's Church (Manhattan)

The Church of St. John the Evangelist
The church and school around 1914 (demolished 1969)
General information
Town or city	New York, New York
Country	United States of America
Construction started	1969 (for present church); 1907 (for school); 1947 (for garage)
Completed	1973 (for present church); 1908 (for school)
Cost	$80,000 (for 1907 school); $900 (for 1947 garage)
Client	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Design and construction
Architect	Franklin A Green and John V. Van Pelt, Associated of 333 Fourth Avenue (for 1907 school); George J. Sole of 110 East 42nd Street (for 1947 garage)
Website
St. John the Evangelist Church, Manhattan

The Church of St. John the Evangelist is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 355 East 55th Street at First Avenue, Manhattan, New York City.

The parish was established in 1830. Or according to other sources in 1841 "with a rather stormy history." The church originally stood on the site of the present St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan. The first Catholic presence of the site there dated from 1810 when the Society of Jesus moved their academy to a fine old house on 50th Street and Fifth Avenue where they created a chapel of St. Ignatius. The chapel was then occupied by Trappist monks from 1813 to 1815, and appears to have ceased function after that. Bishop of New York John Dubois reopened the chapel in 1840 for Catholics employed at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and in the general neighborhood. A modest frame church was built and dedicated 9 May 1841 by the Rev. John Hughes, administrator of the diocese. Tickets were sold to the dedication to ease the parish's debt level, managed by a lay Board of Trustees, but to no avail and the property mortgage was finally foreclosed on and the church sold at auction. The stress is said to have contributed to the death that year of the church's pastor, the Rev. Felix Larkin. The experience was blamed on the management of the trustees and this incident is said to have played a significant role in the abolishment of the lay trusteeship, which occurred shortly thereafter. The young and energetic Rev. Michael A. Curran was appointed to raise fund for the devastated parish, and shortly fitted up an old college hall as a temporary church. Fr. Curran continued raising funds to buy back the church during the Great Famine in Ireland, eventually succeeding and taking the deed in his own name. "The site of St. Patrick's Cathedral, hence, came to the Church through the labors of this young priest and the self-denial of his countrymen and not by the fight of the city." The debt was finally all paid for by 1853, by which time it had become clear that a larger church for the parish was needed elsewhere as its current site had been selected for the new cathedral.