St. Lucy's Church

Source

The St Lucy's Parish was an Irish parish formed in Jersey City in 1884. However, it wasn't until 1895 that their iconic sanctuary was completed. The beautiful new building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by local architect Jeremiah O' Rourke. O'Rourke was best known for designing Roman Catholic churches, most notably the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

The relatively poor parish got a strong start, but in the 1920s a large chunk of homes were demolished in order to build the Holland Tunnel. A large percentage of those displaced by the construction were parishioners of St Lucy's. By this time Roman Catholicism had spread throughout the country, and as a result the city was peppered with other large Catholic churches. The now- diminished St. Lucy's parish no longer needed such a large worship space.

In 1930, a statue of St. Jude was moved outisde the church building and a Perpetual Novena to St Jude was started. A "perpetual novena" is an anual 9 day prayer event intended to go on forever. This drew catholic pilgrims from all over the region. Many came from New York City, through the Holland Tunnel which had opened a few years prior.

At some point the inside of the building was almost entirely painted white. This was likely the result of roman catholic leadership wanting to dress down some of their more impoverished parishes churches all across rhe country. Many more wealthy parishes could afford to keep their worship sites looking palacial, but not all were so lucky.

By 1986 the church campus was closed. The school building was converted into a homeless shelter, and the statue of St Jude and the associated novena were moved to St. Michaels Church in Newark (also designed by Jeremiah O'Rourke). The closure did not sit lightly with the St Lucy's parishioners. Services were held outside the the building in protest. However the archdiocese of Newark upheld the closure, and the doors of the structure were closed for good.

As the decades passed the building deteriorated heavily. Holes began to appear in the roof, windows were broken and boarded up, and the property became a magnet for garbage and drug paraphenalia. I visited the building for the first time in 2017 and the structure was already in a severe state of decay. Preservation New Jersey named the cluster of buildings to its 10 Most Historic Endangered Places in 2018. Shortly afterwards plans came foward for a 20 story glass tower on the St Lucy's property. The church building is supposed to be incorporated into the new development, but the plans are being opposed vehemently by many locals. Even if it is incorporated I'm sure it will be gutted beforehand. Im glad I was able to document the structure before anything else happens to it.