{"nrhp_refnum":"92000154","name":"St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church and Rectory","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"15 St. Mary's Pl.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rochester","county":"Monroe County","state":"NY","lat":43.15334967900003,"lon":-77.60605760099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-03-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Romanesque Revival brick Roman Catholic church (completed 1855) and a Tudor Revival rectory (1905) at 15 St. Mary's Place, facing Washington Square Park in Rochester's Inner Loop, Monroe County, New York.","why_significant":"The church is argued to be one of the oldest surviving examples of early Romanesque Revival church design in downtown Rochester, with brick surface articulation, round arches and asymmetrical towers. The 1905 rectory is a contributing example of turn-of-the-century Tudor Revival residential design. Together they are considered locally significant for architecture.","narrative":"St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church and its rectory occupy a site just under an acre facing Washington Square Park in downtown Rochester. The brick church, begun with a cornerstone laid in 1853 and completed in 1855, was built for a parish founded in 1834 to serve the city's growing Irish Catholic population. Its architect is unknown. The design shows typical Romanesque Revival features: patterned brickwork, round-arched windows, arched corbel tables and asymmetrical square towers. Over time the building gained enlarged transepts (1916-17), a Tiffany-signed rose window, a revised entry, and a new belfry and spire on the north tower designed by James B. Arnold in 1939-40. The three-story brick rectory, built in 1905 on the site of an earlier Italianate rectory, is lightly detailed in Tudor Revival style with gables and cast-stone trim, and received a compatible addition in 1955. Both buildings are valued locally for their architecture, and the church is considered one of downtown Rochester's oldest surviving examples of its style.","period_of_significance":"1853-1905","architect_builder":"Church architect unknown; later spire designed by architect James B. Arnold (1939-40)","architectural_style":"Mid-Nineteenth Century/Early Romanesque Revival (church); Tudor Revival (rectory)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Church and rectory remain in religious use; the form reports alterations but a high degree of integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:45.399239-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/92000154.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000154/407cd7e6ee-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000154/407cd7e6ee-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Matthew D. Wilson (LtPowers)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rochester_St_Marys_Roman_Catholic_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew D. Wilson (LtPowers)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rochester_St_Marys_Roman_Catholic_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75313559","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Church_(Rochester,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7590211"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/monroe-county/st-marys-roman-catholic-church-and-rectory-92000154/"}