Bayonne Church Preserves Rare Piece of History

Amidst the streets of Bayonne, tucked back, sits a marvelous church with an interesting history. St. Vincent de Paul, located on Avenue C and 47th Street, is a monumental building whose steeple stands high above the rest of the neighborhood.

The church initially began as a small local parish in the late 1800s. It was named after the Occitan French Catholic priest, Vincent de Paul. De Paul was an advocate for serving the poor and many parishes not only in the United States have been dedicated to him and his mission.

The initial parish located in Bayonne served the local residents at the time, primarily consisting of Irish, German and Scottish immigrants. Eventually, after several years, the parish was moved in 1905 to a new wooden Gothic Revival church.

In the mid 1920s, Maginnis and Walsh, an architecture firm out of Boston, Massachusetts, stepped in and began construction on a new Romanesque Revival church. Harry Clarke, a stained glass artist from Dublin, Ireland, was even hired to do the forty stained glass windows located throughout the building. They are a testament to his skill and the only example of his work found throughout North America.

The church was eventually completed in 1930, where it stood for 81 years before eventually being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 for its outstanding architecture.

The Church of St. Vincent de Paul is a testament to its community and its namesake as the last line of their mission statement reads, “We devote ourselves to serving one another and all others in our community as did our patron, St. Vincent de Paul.” The church upholds that tradition to this day by offering a food pantry and crisis hotline to those in need.