Historic Brownsville Church To Be Demolished, City Records Show

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — The city has approved plans to demolish the crumbling but historic Lady of Loreto church — despite repeated pleas to save it, records show.

The Department of Buildings issued a permit on March 24 that will allow the Diocese of Brooklyn to tear down the century-old building at 126 Sackman St. at any time, according to city records.

Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development — the corporation that owns the church — determined that it would cost $9 million to renovate the church structure and that the money would be better spent building affordable housing for the area's low-income residents, according to an official statement.

"The permit will allow Catholic Charities, the leaseholder of the property, to move forward with plans to build affordable apartments on the site for families in need," the statement read. "It is our hope to incorporate the memory of the church in the new affordable housing structure."

But activists at the Brownsville Cultural Coalition argue that more than affordable housing, Brownsville needs to preserve the iconic relic of its history.

"Our Lady of Loreto church is symbolic of Brownsville's past, present and should be preserved for Brownsville's future,” said BCC organizer Les Ford in a statement.

“Catholic Charities must come to understand that we the residents and leaders of cultural organizations know the community best and understand that one of the greatest needs is economic revitalization and cultural renewal.”

Our Lady of Loreto — an Italian Renaissance style church built in 1907 by a team of Italian immigrant craftsmen — is believed to be the oldest Italian Catholic church in Brooklyn still in place in its original position.

The space was first shuttered in 2009 when the Diocese of Brooklyn first determined the church to be structurally unsound — and one year after the Catholic Charities applied to the city for permission to build low-income housing in the space, records show.

Community organizers prevented the demolition by rallying local residents, politicians and preservationists to petition the city to spare the 110-year-old stone church, and it sat empty for the next six years as the BCC tried to garner political support for a new plan to adapt the space into a performing arts center, a spokeswoman said.

The BCC plan gained momentum — in 2016 it earned the support of State Senators Tony Avella and the New York Landmarks Conservancy group, and in February Community Board 16 agreed to write a letter of support to preserve the church, according to a BCC spokeswoman.

But Catholic Charities argues that the activists failed to come up with what the church needed most — money to preserve the space. When Catholic Charities sent out requests for proposals in 2013, they received only one application, the organization said in a statement Monday. This is a point of contention — BCC organizers told Patch that they never received those requests.

BCC responded to news of the demolition approval by posting a petition online where residents can protest the church’s demise and they are calling on local residents to reach out to elected officials and ask that the demolition permit be revoked.

This story was updated on April 18, to incorporate the official statement from Catholic Charities.

Image via Google Maps, September 2014