Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York)

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Albany, New York
Built	1848
Architect	Keeley,Patrick
Architectural style	Other
NRHP reference No.	76001203
Added to NRHP	June 8, 1976

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic cathedral on Eagle Street in Albany, New York. It is adjacent to the Empire State Plaza.

The cathedral, located on Eagle Street at Madison Avenue across from Bleecker Park in Albany, was completed in 1852 and consecrated by the Most Reverend John Hughes, Archbishop of New York. The first bishop, John McCloskey, was coadjutor bishop of New York with succession rights. This is why he left upon Archbishop Hughes' death in 1865. The Cathedral has a stone exterior and appears to have a stone interior but does not — the inside is actually plaster and lath but was painted to look like stone. This was really a way to save time, as McCloskey wanted to get the Cathedral finished to prove that the Catholic Church in America was permanent. Originally, there was a flat wall at the back of the Cathedral, where the Lady window was. This window, which depicts scenes in the life of the Virgin Mary, was later moved to the north transept when the semicircular sanctuary was added.

The crypt underneath the cathedral has reportedly never been visited by the current bishop, Howard Hubbard, but it contains six of his predecessors. There is a door in the ceiling of the crypt so that the coffins may be lowered directly into it after the Solemn Requiem of the Bishop. This door, however, was not quite big enough for the ornate, modern coffin that contained Bishop Scully. As a result, they wound up having to take him out of the coffin, carry him down the stairs, take the coffin apart to feed it through the door, and then reassemble it and put him back in. The crypt cannot be detected from above because some of the floor tiles have to be removed to get coffins into it.

The Cathedral underwent a $30M restoration project, in which both the exterior and interior were renovated. It started in 2000 and was expected to be finished, if fund-raising efforts kept up, by 2009. The Cathedral hosted its first masses since the renovations began on May 29, 2010, with most of the work completed. According to the diocese's web site, masses usually held in the Cathedral on Sunday and Holy Days were held at St. James Church.

Tours are offered of the Cathedral. [1]

It was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1976.

An extensive history of the Cathedral was written in 1927 by Christine Sevier, and published by The Argus Company, Albany, NY. It includes the history of the first 75 years of the Cathedral's existence, as well as lists of the "priests who as boys served the Cathedral altar", the "assistant priests at the Cathedral", "some members of the Cathedral Parish who became sisters", and a list of parishioners who served in the First World War.

See also

• Roman Catholic Marian churches
• History of Albany, New York

External links

Media related to Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York) at Wikimedia Commons

• Ralph, Elizabeth K. (1976-06-08). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception". Retrieved 2011-07-30. See also: Accompanying seven photos, exterior and interior, 1976