Natural light has disappeared from three cherished stained glass windows at the Oratory Church of St. Boniface in Brooklyn.
Natural light has disappeared from three cherished stained glass windows at the Oratory Church of St. Boniface in Brooklyn.
Patrick Charles Keely designed and built more than 600 churches and religious buildings in Canada and the U.S., including, up until the time of his death in 1896, all of the 19th-century cathedrals in New England and 14 Catholic churches in Brooklyn.
Famed 19th-century Irish-American church architect Patrick Keely built 19 major cathedrals in Canada and the U.S., including Newark, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Natchez, Mississippi, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, none of those elaborate Gothic-style landmarks are in Keely’s adopted city of Brooklyn, although he died in 1896 believing one of his designs would be built there.
After decades of renovating churches across the Diocese of Brooklyn, a New York City architectural firm with strong Catholic ties is getting commemorated by one of the premier preservation organizations in the state.
Some 80 years before the Pilgrims voyaged west seeking religious freedom in the “New World,” the Catholic faith was already embraced by some longtime inhabitants of North and South America — the native people.
A historic opera house on Brooklyn’s northwest side has been brought back to its former glory to serve as the Diocese of Brooklyn’s own performing arts venue.