In 1883 a Black Catholic mission parish named after St.
Benedict the Moor was established, based on a $5,000 bequest by Fr Thomas Farrell to serve the
African-American community in
Lower Manhattan; his will and testament specified that if the Catholic Church was unable to spend funds for this purpose, it would instead go to the Protestant
Colored Orphan Asylum. It was the first church in the city for black Catholics and the first north of the
Mason–Dixon line. In 1892, the parish took over the former Third
Universalist Church at 210
Bleecker Street, at a time when many African Americans lived in southern Manhattan. It renamed that church for its parish. Upon leaving the church on Bleecker Street, the building became occupied by
Our Lady of Pompeii Church. Fr
Augustus Tolton, the first openly-Black Catholic priest in the United States, celebrated his first
Mass in America at this parish in 1886. A little over a decade later, the first openly-Black Catholic seminarian,
William Augustine Williams (who entered the seminary in Rome in 1853 and departed in 1862), became the parish
sacristan. As the black population moved north, in 1898 the parish took over the former Second German Church of the
Evangelical Association at 342 W. 53rd Street in Hell's Kitchen, renaming it as St. Benedict the Moor Church. On June 30, 2017, the church was
deconsecrated. It was sold to a developer in 2023. == Buildings ==