Saint James Catholic Church

Saint James faced Lafayette Street between Jefferson and Madison Streets

St. James Roman Catholic Church was the third oldest Catholic Church in Newark. Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley officiated at solemn ceremonies the church of Saint James the Less, Newark, New Jersey in 1854. It was a simple brick building, only 40x80 feet - a humble start for an edifice that eventually grew to dominate a full square city block at Lafayette, Jefferson, Madison and Elm Streets in the heart of the city. The magnificent Belleville brownstone, styled in classic Gothic, once projected its spires 250 feet into the Newark skyline. The Church of Saint James was founded on land purchased by Father Louis D.Senez, who was pastor of St. Patrick's. 

From the beginning, St. James was home to Irish immigrants. A grammar school was built very early in the parish to care for over a thousand children who studied for free. Later the parish built a high school and at the turn of the 19th Century St. James hospital was built to care for the sick of the area. All of this showed the concern of the church for a suffering immigrant community. St. James church also was the birthplace of dozens of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. It was a beehive of social activity with drama clubs and athletic groups.  

During the second half of the 19th Century, the Ironbound was home basically to Irish and German, then the Polish, the Italians and the Lithuanians. 

ST. JAMES ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 250 Lafayette St. The largest church in the Ironbound stood on this corner from the Civil War until 1979, when it was demolished by the Archdiocese of Newark to provide parking for the nearby St. James Hospital. The massive church, once the focal point of a thriving Irish community, had a 225-foot tower that was visible for miles. ST. JAMES HOSPITAL, founded in 1900, was originally adjacent to the church, moved to a new five-story building at 155 Jefferson St. in 1961, and is administered by the Sisters of St. Joseph. It has more than 200 rooms and houses intensive and coronary care units. As well as serving residents and workers in the Ironbound, St. James also acts as headquarters during emergencies at Newark International Airport, Port Newark, and local factories. The hospital chapel's stained glass windows depict the patron saints of most of the residents' countries of origin.

Copies of St James records of baptisms and marriages are available to research at Latter Day Saints genealogy facilities (your local LDS group will probably have to order the microfilm for you to view); here are the microfilm numbers for St James:
 

Below: 1927 map

Below: from The Catholic Church in N.J. by Flynn, 1904

St. James's Catholic Church, Newark. 

In 1853 the Rev. Louis D. Senez purchased lots in that portion 
of Newark called the " Neck," on Lafayette Street, with a view 
of erecting a church and a school. March 16th, 1854, the Rev. 
Benjamin F. Allaire, secretary of Bishop Bayley, was appointed 
pastor of the new parish, and immediately steps were taken to 
carry out the project of Father Senez. Father Allaire was edu- 
cated in St. Sulpice, Paris, and was ordained sub-deacon by Mgr. 
Sibour, Archbishop of Paris. After his ordination to the priest- 
hood he was made secretary of Bishop Bayley, October 30th, 1853. 

The corner-stone of the church was laid June 19th, 1854. It 
was a brick building 40 by 80 feet, three stories high, to be used 
both as a church and a school, and was named " St. James the 
Less." 

Before the building was finished Father Allaire was removed, 
and the Rev. James Callan was appointed, October 17th, 1854, in 
his stead. Father Callan, a brilliant young Irish priest, zealous, 
devoted, and impetuous, had made his studies in Ireland and had 
served on the mission in South Amboy. November 5th, 1854, 
the building was ready for dedication, and services were opened. 
He then built a brick rectory in the rear of the church, and 
labored with much zeal in the parish until February 26th, 1864, 
when he resigned and went to California. His death was pathetic 
and worthy of the lofty motives that always swayed him in the 
exercise of his priesthood. When he was returning to his mission 
from the clerical retreat the boiler on the steamboat exploded, 
with the result that many were killed outright and many more 
mortally injured by the scalding steam. Although he had escaped 
all hurt, his first thought was the injured, and without hesitation 
he literally walked into the jaws of death to administer the sacra- 
ments to the dying. During these ministrations he inhaled the 
live steam, but, despite the agony he endured, he persisted in his 
work of heroic charity, and after all was over he succumbed, a 
victim of his zeal and heroism, 1865. 

His successor in St. James's was the Rev. John Mary Gervais. 
Father Gervais was born in the Diocese of Clermont, France,
and became a member of the Society of St. Sulpice. He taught 
philosophy in France and in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore; 
and, after his withdrawal from the society, he was affiliated to the 
Diocese of Newark and appointed assistant to St. Patrick's Cathedral. 
His ideas of the priesthood were the most elevated, his life was most edify- 
ing, and so little did he think of himself that his premature death was due 
in no small degree to his neglect to take proper nourishment. As a curate 
in the cathedral he was devoted to his work, constant in his care of the sick 
and in the difficult work of the confessional. The pastor, Father Mc- 
Quaid, was strenuous and frequent in his appeals for the wherewithal to 
carry on the works of the parish; and as Father Gervais would listen to 

these earnest appeals for money he could not resist showing displeasure by moving his 
chair, and as the appeal would become more urgent so the 
chair would go round, until at the finish Father Gervais had 
literally turned his back to his pastor. He never hesitated to 
express his abhorrence of this necessary evil, which pursues
the pastor even to the present, and to declare that he was 
scandaHzed by it. But, on assuming pastoral charge, he became 
so persistent in his appeals as to dwarf the efforts of the 
pastor, about whose salvation on this score he expressed very 
grave doubts. Piece by piece he secured the adjacent property 
until the entire square was held by the church. He found his 
flock poor but generous. The finances were in good condition 
and the small debt was soon paid. At once he set about raising 
funds for a new stone church, and on July 12th, 1863, the corner- 
stone was laid by Bishop Bayley. It was no unusual sight to see 
the pastor among the workmen, and so absorbed was he in the 
construction that he often forgot to take his meals. In vain did 
his bishop protest and threaten ; and if he did not obey it was not 
through disrespect for his superior, but rather from the intensity of 
his nature, which could brook no restraint or tolerate any respite 
when once set upon a work to be accomplished. Everybody 
marvelled at this wonder-worker, whose brain was ever in a whirl 
with its vast projects. On June 17th, 1866, the church was dedi- 
cated, and on the occasion Bishop Bayley preached an eloquent 
sermon. By the death of Mr. Nicholas Moore a large sum of 
money was bequeathed for the purpose of erecting a hospital. 

Above: from a 1908 Sanborn insurance map

Below: Saint James in the center distance as seen in a frame looking SE from a 1926 film