St. Gabriel's grew out of the Church of
St. John the Evangelist on 55th Street. The parish was formed in 1859. Prior to the construction of the church, services were held in a two–story brick building at 306 East 36th Street. The first rector was Rev. William H. Clowry. Land for the church at the corner of
Second Avenue was donated by
Henry James Anderson, Professor of Mathematics at Columbia College. A parochial school, located at 311 East 36th Street, was organized in 1860. The first floor of the boys school was the chapel, where Sunday Masses for the 1,500-member congregation were held. The church was dedicated on November 12, 1865, by Archbishop
John McCloskey. In 1885, parishioners donated a marble altar in memory of Father Clowry. Two of St. Gabriel's priests at the turn of the century later served as Cardinal Archbishop of New York,
John Murphy Farley and
Patrick Joseph Hayes. Farley introduced electric lighting to the church. St. Gabriel's Select School (for girls) at 229 East 36th Street was conducted by the
Sisters of Charity of Mount Saint Vincent. The
Brothers of the Christian Schools ran the boys school. The parish closed in 1939 to make way for the
Queens–Midtown Tunnel linking
Manhattan to
Queens. The congregation was divided between the
Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and
St. Agnes Church. The church building was demolished May 1939. The altar, pews and statues were sent to the newly constructed
St. Gabriel's Church in
Riverdale, Bronx. The sacramental records for the now-closed Church of St. Gabriel were transferred to nearby
St. Stephen's Church. Early records for the parish school are at the
College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale.
St. Vartan Park, located on the block south of St. Gabriel's between 35th and 36th Streets, was formerly known as St. Gabriel's Park before it was renamed in 1978 for the
St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral nearby on
Second Avenue. ==Architecture==