St. Barnabas Church
409 East 241st Street
Starrett & Van Vleck
1911
Established and dedicated on the day of the feast of St. Barnabas in 1910 by Archbishop John Farley, this Catholic parish flourished from its approximately 360 original members to a congregation boasting almost 15,000. Its founder and pastor Reverend Michael A. Reilly fostered the church from its beginnings as a small storefront mission at the intersection of Webster Avenue and East 240th Street to the completion of this grand, Italianate style church and rectory. Over the next 15 years, the church also established an elementary school, high school and rectory, and later, a new high school building and a chapel. The architects of the church were Starrett & Van Vleck, a firm famous for its Art Deco department store buildings and whose portfolio includes several iconic landmarks, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, the American Stock Exchange Building, the Everett Building at Union Square North and Garfinckel’s Department Store in Washington, DC. St. Barnabas Church is monumental in scale and features a triangular pediment, circular rose window and massive Corinthian pilasters. Its cream-colored brick façades are punctuated by stained glass windows.