St Joseph's Catholic Church

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The city of Bayonne has long had a large Roman Catholic population. In the late 1800's the St Joseph's parish formed out of mostly Slovak catholics. However it wasn't until 1909 that the church in this post was constructed.

The grey stone structure stood at the corner of Avenue E and 25th street, replacing an earlier carpenter gothic building. The parish used the building until 2011, when the archdiocese of Newark chose to consolidate some of its parishes. St Joseph's folded into the new St John Paul II parish, alongside Our Lady of Mt Carmel. The new group operated out of the Mt. Carmel church.

It wasn't long before the building was occupied again, this time by a Syriac Catholic parish. They only used the church for four years, when it was once again announced that the building was to be closed as a place of worship.

2018 brought news that the site was going to be completely demolished and a new housing development was going to rise on the grounds. I grabbed my camera and headed out to the church the next day. I slipped inside and spent the next 15 minutes checking out the place by myself. The interior  of the building was architecturally unremarkable, likely the result of a fire or some other sort of cosmetic damage over the years. I decided to return the next day with my girlfriend to properly document the building.

Late in 2019 heavy machinery started eating away at the beautiful stone edifice from the back, until the 110 year old building was completely reduced to rubble. Before long there will be two ugly new residential buildings on the land, and afterwards the St Joseph's parish will be forgotten.