On September 21, 2011, I wrote Not Under the Gowanus about a church which had nagged me as an enigma for years. Or so I thought. Our Lady Of Czestochowa / St Casimir, located at 183 25th Street in Brooklyn, can be seen from the Gowanus Expressway.
However, on a recent excursion through Brooklyn, I realized that a much more imposing structure closer to a highway is what I had seen so many times on this stretch of highway and that this was the image that was stored in the recesses of my mind: the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – St. Stephen Church, located at Summit Street and Hicks Street, fronting the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before the Gowanus Expressway.
The parish was established in 1882, the first Italian parish established in Brooklyn. I have yet to tour this church, having been "distracted" by Our Lady Of Czestochowa. Only in New York - larger than life, historic, architecturally significant. A place that, elsewhere, would be an unforgettable icon. But here, in New York City, where the extraordinary can become ordinary, I confused one beautiful church with another. Sorry about that :)
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