Saint Paul's Church (Greenville): Saint Paul's Church (Greenville)

Saint Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church and School
14 Greenville Avenue and 193 Old Bergen Road
Greenville

As one drives east across the NJ Turnpike extension bridge (I-78), the steeple of Saint Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church dominates the skyline.  Considered one of the tallest church towers in all of New Jersey, the steeple is the signature feature of the Gothic Revival-style church at Greenville Avenue and Old Bergen Road. Constructed in 1888 on the highest point in southern Greenville, 98 feet above sea level, the facade resembles a medieval cathedral. The New York Times commented, "The architecture of the building is pure Gothic" (July 16, 1888).

The history of the parish is intertwined with that of Greenville. Many parishioners call their church "St. Paul’s (Greenville)" rather than by its official name St. Paul the Apostle. The parish's growth and development reflect the changing fortunes of the Greenville section of Jersey City. The parish once encompassed south Greenville and extended north to Bidwell Avenue. and was surrounded by Upper New York Bay on the east, the Morris Canal on the south (now the Bayonne city line), and Newark Bay on the west. In 1906, after the creation of Sacred Heart Parish, Armstrong Avenue became its new northern boundary.

Before the Civil War, the small farming and fishing village of Greenville was populated by Irish and German immigrants. They lived among the established, though small, settlement of earlier English, Dutch, and African American settlers. Well-to-do New Yorkers built large country homes along Bergen Point Plank Road (now Garfield Avenue) with panoramic views of New York Bay.

With open fields, orchards, and woodlands, Greenville's market gardens offered fresh produce and dairy products and attracted clients from nearby cities in New York and Jersey City. Greenville farmers raised livestock on the gently sloping meadows, and fishermen harvested the bountiful oyster beds on the shorelines. In particular, the hardy crisp-stalked vegetable of celery that grew in abundance gave Greenville its name "celeryville." 

To gain local control over their community, Greenville’s leading residents and property owners established an independent, though brief, municipal government in 1863. During the next few years, new railroad stations and streetcar lines opened, attracting more people to live and work in Greenville. New houses, stores, factories, schools, and churches replaced farming and transformed Greenville from a rural backwater to a thriving town.

When new Irish and German Roman Catholic immigrants settled in Greenville, they attended Sunday Mass at either St. Joseph’s Church at Baldwin Avenue or St. Peter’s Church on Grand Street, each several miles away. A request for a local Catholic church in Greenville was forwarded to Bishop James R. Bayley, the first Bishop of the newly-created Diocese of Newark. The appeal for a new parish was honored and resulted in "St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Greenville, N.J.," incorporated in 1861. At the bishop’s behest, the Passionist Fathers of St. Michael’s Monastery at West Hoboken (now Union City) founded a mission at Greenville where Masses were celebrated in the homes.

The congregation purchased two lots on Old Bergen Road for $375 and built the first church at Old Bergen Road between Greenville and Linden Avenues. It was a modest wood-frame church 20-by-30 feet, costing $1,382. Henry Lembeck, one of the founders of Lembeck & Betz Eagle Brewing Company, and William Farrell are credited with advancing the church’s building program. Father Vincent, C.P. served as its first pastor.

In its early years, the congregation had a strong German influence. Bishop Bayley appointed several priests of German background. The Rev. Peter Niederhauser gave sermons in both English and German. During his tenure (1865-1869), two wings were added to the church and dedicated in 1869. The Rev. Joseph Mendl (1872-1878) expanded the church's frontage in 1874 and purchased adjacent lots for future expansion. A two-story rectory was built at 14 Greenville Avenue, and the parish’s first elementary school (38 x 24 feet), costing $2,000, was built in 1872.

In 1873, the growing population in Greenville resulted in its annexation to neighboring Jersey City. Paul's congregation grew as well. It required a new church and school and an expansion of the rectory.

In 1877, the Rev. J.J. Schandel (1882-1895) planned for the second and present church at the corner of Old Bergen Road and Greenville Avenue began. He selected the building's style with local architect Edward Simon from North Wales. Its 3,600 parishioners conducted a successful building campaign for the church costing $87,000: a cornerstone of polished marble was laid on May 29, 1887.

The following year, on July 15, 1888, Bishop Michael Winand Wigger of the Newark diocese presided over the dedication ceremony. Musicians from the Palestrina Musical Art Society of New York and the Metropolitan Opera House orchestra performed Bach's Mass in B minor, reportedly for the first time in the United States, which the New York Times called humanitarian "[Albert] Schweitzer's mass.".

In the 1960s, St. Paul’s, with 8,000 members, was the largest Roman Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Newark. In 1963, after Country Village's development with over 500 new homes, St. Paul’s parishioners living west of Kennedy Boulevard joined the new parish of Our Lady of Mercy.

In June 2012, St. Paul's parish celebrated its 150th anniversary--one of the older Roman Catholic communities in Hudson County. The parishioners of Asian Indian, Hispanic, Filipino, and African-American ancestry joined the festivities with the parish’s members of German and Irish ancestry.

The present rectory was constructed to mark St. Paul's Golden Jubilee in 1912. It was designed by J.T. Rowland, Jr., Jersey City's foremost architect for its public schools and the Jersey City Medical Center, among other properties.

Exterior

St. Paul's red brick structure, 142 feet long by 62 feet wide, has a pitched-complex gable roof and two steeples dissimilar in height, an asymmetrical appearance found in many Gothic Revival churches.

The right corner steeple, 219 feet tall, with a 15-foot cross, sits atop the church’s taller tower. In the tower's front gable, the 100-foot clock was installed by A.E. Pollhaus. It is a surprising element for a religious structure. The second tower has a steeple to the left and rises approximately 105 feet. In 1950, a hurricane damaged the roof and steeples, and the replacement ribbed copper roof was installed. Eighteen tower bells, weighing 21,000 pounds, installed by H. Stuckstede & Co. of St. Louis, MO, summoned parishioners to services. Since the 1990s, the chiming of the bells has been replaced with electronic chimes.

The four elongated pier buttresses on the facade, accented with bluestone trimmings (caps), define the church's three sections. Each section features a pointed-arch stained-glass window with a stone sill. The large center stained-glass window, below the elongated dentil molding, provides verticality and width to the understated entrance. A set of double lancet stained-glass windows frames the front door rising to a pointed-arch design.  The church's stone cross sits atop the apex of the gable.

Four of the church’s stained-glass windows were reportedly blown out during the Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916. The Jersey Journal details that "practically every pane in St. Paul's Academy [elementary school at Linden Avenue and Old Bergen Road] and most of the stained glass windows in the church were out" (July 31, 1916).

Over the decades, several additions and renovations were made to the church. Three sets of Swedish wrought iron doors at the entrance, which depict events in the life of Christ, were installed in 1932. A new sacristy was added at the rear of the church in 1955. That same year, the imported marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was placed near the main entrance of the church on Greenville Avenue.

Interior

The original church decor was the work of Fred Herreilers. The interior ceiling is 64 feet high at the center and 32 feet at the side extensions. The church's first 40-foot tall High Altar of hand-carved wood was designed and built by Anton Kloster of New York, the stained-glass windows are by Falck Art Glass Works of New York, and the pulpit is by the Globe Furniture Co. The Stations of the Cross, imported from Paris, were set in the walls. Their delicate colors were painted over for a more "modern" appearance in 1974. In the 1990s, they were restored to their approximate original appearance. 

 A large crucifix, bearing the date1873, at the front of the church, is the only element preserved from the earliest years of the parish. In 1928, a new organ with chimes replaced the original 40-foot organ by A.B. Felge of Erie, PA. A gold tabernacle and public address system were installed in 1932.

In the 1970s, a semi-circular design of chairs without kneelers around a central altar replaced the traditional arrangement of the central aisle and pews facing the marble altar. The changes in the sanctuary and nave reflected the spirit and intent of the Second Vatican Council liturgical reforms of 1968. The concept stirred some controversy. After sixteen years, the church was restored to its original Gothic design from a $50,000 pledge campaign. Mid-South Church Furnishings of Louisiana manufactured the new traditional-style pews.

St. Paul's School of Excellence

In 1872, St. Paul's parish built its first wood-frame school (38 x 24 feet), costing $2,000, which adjoined St. Paul's first church. Five nuns of the Order of Dominican Sisters of Newburgh replaced the original lay teachers. The Sisters began their ministry as a teaching order in lower Manhattan and then at Mount Saint Mary Academy in Newburgh, NY, in 1883. They later founded the Mount Saint Mary Normal and Training School (ca. the 1930s) and Mount Saint Mary College (1960).

The nuns at St. Paul's school initially lived on the second floor of the Greenville Avenue rectory that was vacated by the pastor, the Rev. Joseph Mendl, until a four-story convent at the corner of Linden Avenue and Old Bergen Road was completed in 1877. The first floor of the rectory was used for classrooms.

In 1890, the new school behind the church, costing $40,000, at the corner of Linden Avenue and Old Bergen Road opened for 700 students. It offered a Commercial Course with classes in stenography, typing, and bookkeeping to fulfill the educational goals of preparing them for business careers.

In 1926, the new school, costing $600,000, was completed at Greenville Avenue and Old Bergen Road for 1500 students. The spacious building has classic architectural features, such as a pair of Doric columns accenting the fenestration on the second floor and a central pediment with a decorative cartouche. It was the accomplishment of Monsignor Thomas F. Monaghan (1915-1958), a staunch advocate of Catholic education. With a new focus on academics, the school gained a statewide reputation for student academic achievement. During his 43-year tenure, Msgr. Monaghan also oversaw the church's renovation and the construction of a new convent in 1929.

St. Paul’s School of Excellence closed in June 2003 due to escalating expenses and declining enrollment. The CREATE Charter School occupied the facility until 2010. In September of that year, the Infinity Institute of the Jersey City Board of Education leased the property for an accelerated college preparatory program. 

Bishop, Jim. “Msgr. Monaghan’s Faith Built St. Paul’s.” Jersey Journal 24 May 1957.
“Greenville, Jersey City’s St. Paul the Apostle Church Celebrates Its 150th Anniversary.” Jersey Journal 25 June 2012.
“Happy Catholics: Their Pretty Church Dedicated at Last.” Jersey Journal. 16 July 1888.
“Home from Panama; Killed by Train.” Jersey Journal 23 March 1908.
“Hudson Parishes Celebrating 125th.” Catholic Advocate 3 December 1986.
“Infinity Institute, School for Gifted Students in Greenville, Will Not be Moved.” Jersey City Independent 29 March 2012.
Leir. Ronald. “St. Paul’s Church in Greenville Revives Original Gothic Design.” Jersey Journal 10 January 1992.
Lewis, Femi. “New Pastor for Greenville Parish.” Jersey Journal 14 January 2000.
“Monaghan, Rev. Thomas Francis, S.T.L.,” in Daniel Van Winkle. History of the Municipalities of Hudson County, New Jersey: 1630-1923. New York: Lewis Historical Publication Co., 1924.
"Msgr. Monaghan's Faith Built St. Paul's." Jersey Journal 24 May 1957.
“Ocean and Jackson Avenues Greenville’s Worst Sufferers.” Jersey Journal 31 July 1916.
Santora, Alexander. “Old St. Paul’s Is Ever New at 150.” Jersey Journal 31 May 2012.
Schaeken, Rev. Alphonse M.H. "History of St. Paul's Catholic Church Founded 1861." New York: P.Q. Fox, n.d.
“St. Paul the Apostle.” New York Times 16 July 1888.
“St. Paul’s Church, Greenville, Jersey” City, NJ: Centennial Year, 1861-1961.” No citation.
“St. Paul’s: Church Has Burgeoned since 1861.” Jersey Journal. 31 August 1961.
“St. Paul’s: Church Has Undergone Constant Renovation.” Jersey Journal. 30 August 1961.
“St. Paul’s: Greenville Was Farms When Church Started.” Jersey Journal. 28 August 1961.
“St. Paul’s: Present Edifice Was Erected When Leo XIII Was Pope.” Jersey Journal 29 August 1961.
“Sudden Death of Architect Simon.” Jersey Journal 20 November 1890.