St. Brigid's Protections Are Extended
From The Villager
St. Brigid’s protection is extended
By Albert Amateau
St. Brigid’s Church received another reprieve last week from the wrecker’s ball when the Appellate Division extended a temporary restraining order barring the Catholic Archdiocese of New York from demolishing the 1849 church building.
The church on Avenue B across from Tompkins Square Park, though decrepit and unoccupied for two years, is still repairable, said Edwin Torres, president of the Committee to Save St. Brigid’s.
The fate of the building, designed by Irish-born architect Patrick Keely and built by Irish boatwrights who worked in the East River boatyards, has been before two State Supreme Court judges and a panel of Appellate Division judges. Successive restraining orders have prevented the archdiocese from razing the “famine church.”
The latest restraining order is expected to protect the church from demolition at least until late spring or early summer, pending a decision on the appeal.