St. Teresa Catholic Church - New York City (credit: Jim Henderson)
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Church of St. Teresa
(Roman Catholic)

141 Henry Street, corner Rutgers Street
New York, N.Y. 10002
http://www.stteresany.org



Organ Specifications:
► III/36 George Jardine & Son (1880)
• III/36 Thomas Robjohn (1858)







There has been a church at the present site since 1798 when Henry Rutgers deeded out land for development as New York City continued to expand beyond its old boundary at Wall Street. The church that was established was a Presbyterian church, and after several years of growth, it built the current structure in 1841. At that time the neighborhood was well established, and moderately prosperous, with the East River docks just a few blocks south. With its new building, Rutgers Presbyterian Church was there to stay.

However in the 1840s the first waves of Irish immigrants began arriving because of the potato famine. They flooded the neighborhood, changing what was a middle class protestant enclave into an Irish Catholic slum. The residents of the Lower East Side began to move, and with it them, the congregation of Rutgers Presbyterian, eventually settling at 73rd and Broadway, where it exists today.

St. Teresa Catholic Church - New York City  
   
In 1863 the Church of St. Teresa's was established. The patroness of the parish is Teresa of Avila, the child of Jewish converts, Teresa was born in Spain in 1515. Teresa lived in turbulent times; the New World had been discovered by Columbus; the Protestant Reformation was raging in Germany. Teresa grew up in a world where women essentially had two options; marriage or the convent. Teresa, an independent minded woman, entered the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation in 1536. There were many other independently-minded women there; the way of life, though poor, was also very relaxed. Guests entered and left freely, and nuns left the enclosure on home visits. Teresa's early years in the convent were not positive; she grew ill, and the years between 1543 and 1555 were years of spiritual desolation. In 1555 she experienced a spiritual conversion, and sought to reform her Carmelite order by returning to a stricter observance of their Rule of life. She encountered fierce opposition, but in 1562 opened the new Carmelite convent of St. Joseph's with four other like-minded sisters. She continued to experience opposition from both the female and male branches of her order. They suspected her of being a charlatan, especially as rumors of her sanctity grew. She died on October 4, 1582, was canonized in 1622, and in 1970 she was made a Doctor of the Church, in recognition of her contributions to mystical theology and Christian spirituality. Devotion to her was widespread in Europe, including Ireland, and no doubt this contributed to her being named as the patroness of this new church established on the lower east side of Manhattan.

Throughout its history, St Teresa's has reflected the character of its neighborhood. At first it was a parish of Irish immigrants, who only had to walk the few blocks from the piers on the East River to find help and support from the parish. Societies such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul were active in the parish, ministering to the poor Irish immigrants who quickly settled in the tenements that were being built everywhere. The neighborhood would soon see wave after wave of immigrants; Germans, and Slavs, in the 20th century, Latinos and most recently, Asians. The mix of cultures and languages gives to St. Teresa's a multi-cultural flavor, with mass being celebrated every Sunday in English, Chinese and Spanish.

St. Teresa's had always been a poor parish, worshiping in an old building for which there had never been sufficient funds for proper maintenance. As a result, in 1995 the interior vaulted ceiling of the church collapsed, and 60,000 pounds of plaster fell, breaking through the floor into the basement parish hall. The congregation worshiped for months in a local synagogue, but eventually found the money to repair the floor so that they could worship in the church albeit in the basement. The future looked bleak. There was no money to repair the main church, and many argued that St. Teresa's should be closed. However, the pastor at the time, Father Dennis Sullivan, and his parishioners were determined that St. Teresa's would not close. After the school had been condemned and closed in 1942, it had been torn down and eventually become a parking lot, used by the church and neighborhood residents. The late 1990s were a time of rising property values, as New York City began to revitalize and the Lower East Side began to gentrify. Thus through the sale of the parking lot and adjacent air rights, the parish began extensive renovation of the church, including a new roof, new interior appointments salvaged from what was left from the old, and as the crowning glory of the church the restoration of three murals painted in the 1880s, depicting St. Patrick teaching the pagan kings of Ireland, St. Teresa teaching her sisters, and the crucifixion. The church was reopened in the early winter of 2002 and solemnly rededicated by His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan in early 2003.
               
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1880)
Mechanical action
3 manuals, 35 stops, 36 ranks


The following specification was recorded by F.R. Webber, whose "Organ Scrapbooks" are in the possession of The Organ Historical Society Archives in Princeton, N.J.
               
Great Organ (Manual I)
16
   Open Diapason  
4
   Principal  
8
   Open Diapason  
3
   Nasard  
8
   Stopped Diapason  
2
   Piccolo  
8
   Doppel Flöte       Sesquialtera, 2 ranks  
8
   French Gamba  
8
   Trumpet  
4
   Concert Flute  
4
   Clarion  
               
Swell Organ (Manual III)
16
   Bourdon  
3
   Quint  
8
   Open Diapason  
2
   Fife  
8
   Viol d'Amour  
8
   French Trumpet  
8
   Stopped Diapason  
8
   Orchestral Oboe  
4
   Octave  
8
   Vox Humana  
               
Choir Organ (Manual I)
8
   Open Diapason  
2
   Flageolet  
8
   Lieblich Gedeckt  
8
   Clarinet  
8
   Dulciana          
4
   Boehm Flöte       Solo  
4
   Violina  
8
   Tuba Mirabilis [12' w.p.]  
               
Pedal Organ
16
   Open Diapason  
8
   Violoncello  
16
   Bell Gamba  
16
   Trombone  
16
   Bourdon       Octaves 16'  
               
Thomas Robjohn
New York City (1858)
Mechanical action
3 manuals, 36 stops


Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
               
Sources:
     "Consecration of St. Teresa's Roman Catholic Church," The New York Times (Oct. 16, 1882).
     "Dedication of St. Teresa's Church," The New York Times (June 22, 1863).
     Dunlap, David. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
     Nelson, George. Organs in the United States and Canada Database. Seattle, Wash.
     Ogasapian, John. Organ Building in New York City: 1700-1900. Braintree, Mass.: The Organ Literature Foundation, 1977.
     St. Teresa Church website: http://www.stteresany.org 
     Webber, F.R. "Organ scrapbook" at Organ Historical Society Archives, Princeton, N.J. Specifications of Geo. Jardine & Son organ (1880). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.

Illustration:
     eBay.com. Undated linen drawing of St. Teresa Church.