Fathers of Mercy, a French community of priests, established the Church of Notre Dame in 1910 as a
mission of the
St. Vincent de Paul Parish on West 23rd Street. The church had been established after Geraldyn Redmond donated funds to the Fathers of Mercy, requesting they build a
chapel to propagate devotion to
Our Lady of Lourdes. The sanctuary completed in 1910 was the work of Daus and Otto.
Cross & Cross designed the nave, facade, and rectory completed in 1914. A planned dome was never completed. The expansion continued intermittently until completed 50 years later. The chapel was officially dedicated on October 2, 1910, by Archbishop
John Farley. Cardinal Farley dedicated the enlarged structure on February 11, 1915, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Notre Dame became an independent parish in 1919 and grew from a small chapel to the present church in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was still a center for New York's French community when Cardinal
Charost of Rennes visited the church in June 1926 and when Bishop
Alfred Baudrillart of the
Institut Catholique de Paris presided at a ceremony in April 1927. In 1936, an organization of lay parishioners, the Notre Dame Study Club, was the first group of its type to call upon every Catholic parish to support the Catholic Church in efforts to provide for social justice for black people. In 1960, charge of Notre Dame was transferred from the Fathers of Mercy to the Archdiocese of New York. In January 1967, the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Church and the Rectory of Notre Dame as official city landmarks. The buildings were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1980. In 1988, some parishioners sued under canon law to prevent the remodeling of the sanctuary, specifically relocating the altar in accordance with liturgical reforms established by Second Vatican Council. ==Notre Dame today==