The Irish standard., 1888-01-28
JUST HALF A CENTURY OLD.
A Church to be Consecrated That is
Connected With the
Past.
THE CHURCH WAS..BEGUN IN 1886
And Its Site Was Donated by Cornelius
Heeney, the Celebrated
Phiianthropist.

Heeney, the Celebrated
Phiianthropist.
i Old St. Paul's, the second Roman
Catholic Church erected in Brooklyn
was so years Old last New Years day
says the New York Sun. 1t was opened
on New Years, 1888, ant
the commemoration Of the event was tx
have been marked by it's consecratiof
| by Bishop Lough}in, but owing to the
recent accident to the pastor, the Rev
". j. Hill, and the non-compietion OF
the extensive alterations aud repairs te
the 'ed,fice, the ceremony has been put
Off until the first Sunday in May. The
church was begun in 1885, thirteen
years after St. James was opened. and
its site. at the corner OF Court and Con
gress streets, Was donated by Cornelius
Heeney, the philanthropist, whose ben.
efactions are yet a principle source Of
the revenue Of the Brooklyn Catholic
orphans. Heeney WAS born in Queen S
C, unity, Ireland, in 1854, and Came to
America when he was 20 years old, lie
was wrecked OIL the Detenare shore.
and with his fellow passengers was res
cued by the baymen there, who de-
manded ST. a head for saving them.
Heeney did not even have that amount,
but it Was paid for him by a generous
Quaker, who refused TO tell his name.
simply saying: "Whenever thou seest
a fellow creature in want Of dollar as
hou art now, giva it to him. and thou
wilt have repaid me-" He first was
employed in Philadelphia. Next he
gut s. place in a st Jre in New York
where John Jacob Astor was porter.
In the course Of time their employer re-
tired and sold them the business, ii,
which they continued as partners for
several years. Mr.. Heeney then went
into the fur BUSINESS on his own &C
count and made considerable money.
He never married. at his death lie
left what money and proDerty he had
not before gwen away, in trust for the
benefit Of the poor and the orphans OF
Brooklyn. The Ieeney estate in
Brooklyn, which he took some years be-
fore his death TO secure debt IF $50,
600, is now the mosg valuable part of
the fashionable Heights, and She
ground rents from it brlng in $40 600 {.
year to the Brooklyn Benevolent s'ocie-
ty, which administers the trust. He
died OH May 8, 1S4s, aged 81 years, and
Was buried in the rear OF st. fanl's.
Over his grave is marble monolith,
which is sacred to his memory as The
''friend Of the widow and the orphan. I"
Mr. Heeney, with Andrew Morris, at
one time owned the present site OF st.
Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue
and sold it on May 2l, 1921, to Dennis
Doyle, subject to a mortgage held by
the Eagle Fire Insurance Company
This mortgage was foreclosed on SopJ
13, 1928, and the property was sold by q
sheriff to Francis Cooper for $500
Cooper sold it for the same sum and Ill
terest on Jan. 80, 1929, to the trustees
St. Patrick g AID ST. Peters churches
They intended to use it as a cemetery
When Mr.. Heeney gave tte site for st
PauI's, it was considered away out o.
Brooklyn. The new church was started
in the summer Of 1896, and was aln1os
finished, when storm on the night O
December Ia, 1886, blew down the wall
aad demolished the entire structure
The loss fell on the contractor, james
Harper, who was almost ruined in al
honest effort to replace the work. HI
succeeded, however, and had another
church ready to be dedicated on Jan. !
1888, by the late Right Rev. DIR. d.
Bois, then Bishop of New York. The
architect was Mr.. King, who built sev
eral of the old Protestant churches O
Brooklyn. In those daysSt. Paul's hae
no steeple. It's fl ont was ornamen!e &c
with tall Doric columns. The entrance
was set back much further from The
street than it is at present, and in the
churchyard were made the graves OF
many of its early members. The first
pastor was a franciscan Friar named
Waters, who was succeeded in 1889 b,
the Rev. Nicholas . 'Donnell, who was
pastor until 1917. The priests of the
church then mlnistered to all the terri.
tory extending over to Williamsburg
where the founded as an offshoot Of the
parish, in 1889, Father Malone's pres
ent parish. In 1847 the Rev. Joseph A.
Schneider, with whose name the record
of old st. Paul's is inseparably linked,
was made its pastor. Father Schneider
was bornin Germany, but came here
when quite young. He used to say he
was an Irishman, because the ship on
which he came over was wrecked on