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On January 4, 1876 the cornerstone for the Church
of St. Paul the Apostle was laid, and so began the
construction of the Mother Church of the Paulist Fathers..
The church was the fulfillment
of the ideals and hopes of Father Hecker, who dreamed
of building a noble basilica that would combine the
artistic ideals of the past, with the American genius
of his day. After visiting and studying noted European
churches, he communicated his ideas to the architect
Jeremiah O’Rourke
who drew up the plans for the present building. Father
George Deshon, one of the original Paulists, and a
West Point engineer, later took over as architect-in-charge
and brought the church to completion in January 1885.
Inspired by the 4 th & 5 th century early Christian
basilicas in Ravenna, Italy, the church is 284 feet
long, 121 feet wide, and 114 feet to the highest point
of the towers, which are 38 feet square. The grand
exterior of the church reflects 13 th century Old Gothic.
To decorate and beautify the interior of St. Paul’s,
Father Hecker engaged the eminent American artists
John LaFarge, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Lumen Winter,
Stanford White, and later, William Laurel Harris. Their
combined majestic artwork can be seen throughout the
church in its beautiful stained glass windows, murals,
and sculptures.
The church also contains a world-class organ. This
fine instrument, replacing an earlier Skinner organ,
was constructed in 1965 by the M.P. Moller Company,
and restored by the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company in
2000. It has 4 manuals, 82 ranks, 78 stops, and 4965
pipes. The Moller organ has attracted many famous organists
eager to play this fine instrument.
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