Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church

 church, Gothic revival (architecture), 1900_construction, Roman Catholic church

Gothic-revival Roman Catholic church completed in 1900. Designed by Thomas H. Poole, it is clad in rough-faced pink Milford granite. The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus was organized in 1868 in the area then known as Bloomingdale. A wood-frame church was erected on the northwest corner of Bloomingdale Road (now called Broadway) and 97th Streeet. Construction on this church began in 1891, continuing in stages until initial completion at the turn of the century; the steeple was added in 1918. The large interior is noted for its hammer-and-beam ceiling, stained glass windows, terrazzo floor, and beautiful marble altars. A parish house was built adjacent to the church on 96th Street, and to the north a school was added in 1905.

The tall bell tower that anchors the southeast corner features thin buttresses and four Gothic finials at the top. The octagonal steeple is faced in slate and copper, with two levels of small decorative gables, and a small cross on top. A shorter tower on the north side frames the main entrances, in three pointed-arched openings atop a broad set of steps. Each opening has a set of paneled, red wooden double-doors flanked by paired, slender, engaged columns with Corinthian capitals. A high-peaked gable molding tops each arch. Above the center entrance is a large, 3-tiered, pointed-arch stained-glass window, with reddish-brown metal tracery, depicting the Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus. It shows the Savior of the world, crowned and sitting on His throne, while He receives the adoration of all creation. There is a rounded buttress on either side, and a shorter, very narrow staines-glass window above and just outside of the outer entrances. A large gable tops this middle section, with the two buttresses continuing as narrower columns that break above the slopes of the gable, where they are crowned by finials. The top of the gable has a very small, narrow slit window, and a crowning cross.

The towers that frame the middle section both project out. The north tower has a set of paired, pointed-arch stained-glass windows at the ground floor, and a larger, pointed-arch stained-glass window above. The tower is capped by a pyramidal slate roof with copper cresting and the four octagonal buttresses extend up to conical copper finials. The taller south tower has a triple-window at the ground floor, a round oculus window high up on the 2nd level, and two small pointed-arch windows above that. The top level of the tower narrows as the buttresses are capped with short, stone finials and give way to engaged, octagonal corners, with each face of the tower having a large, pointed-arch opening with reddish-brown metal tracery shielding the belfry, above which rise the four copper finials and the steeple. The roof of the nave and apse are sloped and shingles, and crowning the traditional cruciform shape is a copper-clad fleche.

On 96th Street, the ground floor of the bell tower at the east end has another entrance atop a set of steps, matching those on the east facade. The south face of the tower matches the east side. To the west the facade is organized by buttresses into five bays with pointed-arch stained-glass windows; a setback above these windows reveals a low-sloped roof (mirrored on the north side of the church), with the finials of the buttresses extending above. Behind these roofs, the main sanctuary roof rises above, with the upper walls having another set of buttresses and arched windows. At the ground level the 3rd & 4th bays have segmental-arched basement openings with red-painted wooden infill. The 5th bay has a set of stairs that leads up to a landing facing a secondary entrance on the left, in the east-facing wall of the south wing of the cruciform shape. The south face of this wing has three segmental-arched openings at the ground floor, the middle one wider, with red wooden infill. Two squared buttresses at the ends, and two rounded buttresses in the middle extend up to the higher levels. The two middle buttresses end just above the lower roof lines to either side, capped by copper finials, and frame a gable from which rises a 2-tired, pointed-arch stained-glass window. On either side is a narrower window, set lower. A large gable tops this wing (and also the corresponding north wing), with two smaller buttresses separating the three windows, and all four ending in finials above the slope of the gable. There is an oculus window in the middle of the upper part of the gable, and a crowning cross.

The western end of the facade has a couple more segmental-arched openings as the ground level, with red wooden infill, with smaller, arched windows at the upper levels. The western section now houses the St. Francis Thrift Store. A narrow, 2-story cast-iron section connects to the parish house to the west.

In 2015 the parishes of Holy Name of Jesus and Saint Gregory the Great were merged into a new parish- Holy Name of Jesus-Saint Gregory the Great Parish. The boundaries of the parish maintained the existing boundaries of the two parishes. The parish consisted of both churches with Holy Name of Jesus designated as the parish church.