Father Pitt

Looming up from the quiet back streets of Sheraden, this titanic Gothic church would put many a cathedral to shame. Built in 1924,⁽¹⁾ it was probably the grandest work of William P. Hutchins.⁽²⁾ Though it has closed as a church and has been stripped of some of its ornamental details, it is still in use and thus maintains at least a precarious hold on existence.

This article will be a feast for lovers of utility cables. The rest will just have to put up with diagonal black lines in the pictures.

The apse of the church is a commanding presence on the street, making strollers-by feel almost as if they have wandered into a medieval cathedral city. But how many Gothic apses in those stuffy European towns have a garage in the basement?

Footnotes

1. From the American Contractor, March 17, 1923: “Church: 1 sty., bal. & bas. Landis st. nr. Sherwood st. Archt. W. P. Hutchins, 2d av. & Smithfield st. Owner The Holy Innocents R. C. Congr., Rev. D. J. O’Shea, 3011 Landis st. Stone walls. Archt. will take bids abt. Apr. 1. Drawing plans.” (↩)
2. It replaced an earlier church by John T. Comès, and is sometimes misattributed to Comès. (↩)

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