Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (Manhattan)

The church complex comprises four buildings, all on the block between East 65th and 66th on the east side of Lexington. Across the street are low rowhouses; just to the north are the Seventh Regiment Armory, a National Historic Landmark, and the apartment building at 131–35 East 66th Street, also a city landmark. The entire site is less than Within the site, four buildings – the church, priory, Holy Name Society building and St. Vincent Ferrer High School — are connected by adjoining walls. All are architecturally compatible, but only the church and priory are considered contributing properties due to their age and simpler architecture. The cruciform church is built of limestone laid in a random ashlar pattern on three sides. The east (rear) elevation, barely visible from the street, is faced in brick. On the west, facing Lexington Avenue, is the five-bay tower. It has two engaged octagonal towers flanking the large rose window, with stone tracery forming conjoined trefoils, in the center of the upper stage. Below the window is a tall round-arched entryway and stone steps topped with a carving of the Crucifixion. On the north and south the bays are divided by buttresses supporting the steeply pitched copper roof A large four-manual console in the choir controls the two Schantz pipe organs, Opus 2145 in the choir and Opus 2224 in the west gallery. The interior also features two relics of St. Vincent Ferrer in the church and the only example of a hanging pyx that is not in a museum. The priory, at the northeast corner of 65th and Lexington, is a five-story brick building on a brownstone foundation. Its facades are decorated with alternating stone and brick voussoirs, arched openings, stone bands at the imposts, pilasters and buttresses. The roofline is lined with stone and brick corbels below the cornice, with elongated stone corbels on the projecting gabled entrance tower in the center of the east (front) facade. A high brownstone stoop with cast iron newels and rails leads from the street to a deeply recessed, arched first floor entrance with clustered colonnettes. The mix of the brick and stone with the slate tiling on the dormer-pierced mansard roof gives the building a polychromatic effect. The Holy Name Society building and school are both similar structures of brick and stone. Much of their detailing and ornament, such as their buttresses and tracery, echoes or mirrors that found on the church and priory. The Society building and school date to 1930 and 1948 respectively and are not considered sufficiently historic to be included in the National Register listing with the church and priory at this time. ==History==

19th century In the 1860s, a Dominican priest from France, Father Thomas Martin, was sent to the Diocese of New York and took up residence in a brownstone on Lexington Avenue and 62nd Street. Others followed, and the Dominicans became popular among the city's Catholic population. John McCloskey, the archbishop of the Diocese of New York and the first American cardinal, asked them to establish a parish on what is now the Upper East Side. Father Martin and the other priests borrowed $10,000 ($ in contemporary dollars), bought 18 lots totaling at the present location By 1879 the construction was expanded and on December 12, a second church was dedicated. Its first Mass was celebrated on the feast day of St. Vincent Ferrer, September 8, 1879. At the same time the order decided to build a priory at the church to serve as its provincial headquarters. It commissioned William Schickel, a German-born architect who had recently completed his first major work in New York, the John Crimmins House at 40 East 68th Street. The priory's intricate use of materials and its overall polychromy, characteristics of the High Victorian Gothic style popular in the late 19th century, reflect Schickel's training in Bavaria and the strong influence there of Friedrich von Gärtner. It was the first of many buildings Schickel would design for the New York diocese. Later in the 20th century, contributions from William E. Simon and an anonymous donor allowed the church to purchase the newer of its two Schantz pipe organs. In the early 2000s a capital campaign allowed the church to install new heating and cooling systems, and restore its exterior. That latter project was complete in 2009. On May 8, 2015, the Archdiocese of New York announced the merger of parishes between St Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena Church. Both churches will remain open. ==Programs and services==

The church celebrates Mass three times a day and four times on Sunday. Vigils are observed on Saturday nights and the evenings before Holy Days of Obligation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) is offered all evenings except Sunday. The Liturgy of the Hours is observed by the Dominican friars daily in the Friars' Chapel which is open to the public. Outside the church, the congregation's Social Concerns Committee coordinates involvement in charitable work in the area. Members host holiday parties and bingo games at the Women's Shelter in the neighboring Park Avenue Armory, staff the Yorkville Common Pantry and assist members of nearby Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in feeding the homeless on Tuesday nights. The congregation is also a member organization of East Congregations for Housing Justice, which advocates for affordable housing in Manhattan. ==Notable people==

Andy Warhol regularly attended Mass at the church. In 2000, Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein and Angela Brown married at the church. Several notable funeral Masses have taken place at St. Vincent Ferrer. Dorothy Kilgallen's funeral Mass took place on November 11, 1965, with 2,600 people in attendance. The funeral Mass of politician Geraldine Ferraro took place on March 31, 2011; she and her husband John Zaccaro had been married at the church in 1960. The funeral Mass of businesswoman Ivana Trump took place there on July 20, 2022. == Gallery ==

File:St Vincent Ferrer 65 jeh.JPG|Church undergoing renovations in 2008 File:StVincentFerrer1869.jpg|The first Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, known as the "Gothic barn" File:Chancel and Altar, Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (NYC).jpg|The Chancel and Altar of the church File:Triforium view of Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (NYC).jpg|Triforium view of the church from the Altar File:Rood in Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (NYC).jpg|The elaborate rood File:Rosary Chapel - Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (NYC).jpg|Rosary Chapel File:Friar's Chapel of Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (NYC).jpg|Friar's Chapel ==See also==