I was in Chinatown in New York one day in 2016 at the Chinese Benevolent Association. Right down the block is one of the most historic reminders of Civil War Era Irish New York. The Church of the Transfiguration was originally called the Church of the Immigrants. The parish was founded in 1827 and it moved into its current home in 1853. The church building itself was built in 1801 as an English-speaking Lutheran Church. The bell tower was added after the Civil War.
The altar at the church:
Here are the pews. The parish is almost entirely made up of Chinese Americans and several people were there in the middle of this weekday to pray silently.
The ceiling:
The baptismal fountain:
Welcome in Chinese and English:
The New York City landmark plaque:
Here is the plaque to Father Varela, the founder of the parish. Varela was himself an immigrant and refugee. He was a leading intellectual in his native Cuba who advocated independence from Spain and an end to slavery. He founded the parish to work with poor Irish immigrants arriving in the US in the early 19th Century.
He was the subject of a stamp:
The Memorial consists of a statue of Father Varela surrounded by a mandorla of anodized aluminum letters that together spell out The Lord’s Prayer. The base of the sculpture is fashioned from black granite from the lot used to build the September, 11th Memorial.
There is a nice historical display outside of the church. I will post some of the panels. Here is the large map of the old Five Points. The black star is the actual Five Points where five streets come together. The white triangle next to it is Paradise Square. Bottle Alley is at what used to be called Mulberry Bend, which was the most dangerous part of the neighborhood. The Bend was where the poorest rural folks from Sligo Ireland lived right after they arrived fleeing the Famine. Since many of the farm women had no skills marketable in a city, this was the place where many became sex workers. It was said that there was at least one brothel in every building on the Bend. The area to the west of Mulberry was completely removed when the Five Points were cleared in the effort to destroy the neighborhood.
The white star marks the location of the Church of the Transfiguration. It is a block from Mulberry Bend.
Here are some of the historical panels outside the church:
I would note that there is a lot of controversy about the claim in the panel that there was a murder a night in the Old Brewery. This claim would exceed the number of murders in the entire city most years.
The founding pastor:
We can see why the good Father had to leave the Spanish Empire:
The old Five Points neighborhood is still an immigrant center, with Chinese being the country of origin for most people. Here is the scene on Mott Street from the corner of the church:
