page_title: St. John the Baptist Church (Manhattan)
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: St. John the Baptist Church (Manhattan) / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: Exterior view of New York City's Pennsylvania Station from the northeast in 1911
context_page_description: The Church of St. John the Baptist is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 211 West 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Fur District of the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. To the church's rear is the Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist, located at 210 West 31st Street across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden.
  In 2015, the parish of St. John the Baptist Church merged with the parish of Holy Cross Church on West 42nd Street.
context_section_description: The present French Gothic-style stone church was built between 1871 and 1872 to the designs of the prolific ecclesiastical architect Napoleon LeBrun, architect of several New York Catholic churches as well as the cathedral in Philadelphia. The cornerstone was laid by Fr. Frey on Pentecost Sunday, June 4 or June 11 of 1871. The church is 165 feet long and 67 feet wide, originally accommodating 1,200 people, and costing $175,000 to construct
  Fr. Frey returned to the parish in 1888 and built the central bell tower in preparation for the church's Golden Jubilee held on 18–19 January 1891 and marked by Archbishop Michael Corrigan, Bishop Wigger of Newark, Archbishop-elect Katzer of Milwaukee and Abbott H. Pfraengle of Newark. The tower has a carillon of five swinging bells cast by the J.G. Stuckstede & Brothers Foundry in St. Louis, Missouri. The peal still rings each day. The church was dedicated on June 23, 1872, by Archbishop John Cardinal McClosky, the first American cardinal.
  In preparation for the church's 125th anniversary, it underwent a complete renovation, which lasted several years. The church was re-dedicated on 24 June 1996, the feast day of its patron saint, by Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor, Archbishop of New York. The church's organ and choir gallery, as well as a number of statues and stained-glass windows, were destroyed in a fire on 10 January 1997. The damage was eventually repaired and the organ was replaced with an electronic one.
  According to bronze memorial plaques affixed to the wall of the narthex, for the 160th anniversary of the parish and the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, the bell tower was restored by funds provided by Antonio D'Urso and his wife Giovanna Parpo in 2000. The rededication of the St. Joseph, Ave Maria, St. Clare, St. Fidelis Bells were the gift of Kevin Ward, blessed November 30, 1890 by Archbishop McClosky and rededicated November 7, 1998, by Father Bernard Smith, O.F.M, Cap., the Provincial of the Capuchins.
  The AIA Guide to NYC (2010) described the church as "...a Roman Catholic Trinity. The interior of white, radiates light. Worth a special visit."  In January 2020 an expansion of Pennsylvania Station, to be called Penn South, was proposed. The proposal would expand the track area south to W 30 St and require demolition of the entire block between Eighth and Seventh Avenues, West 31st to 30th Streets.
  The brown brick Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist was built in 1974 in the Brutalist style. It was sold to a retail property developer in 2016.
caption: View from the northeast, c. 1911, depicting the church (at left) in relation to the then new Penn Station
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