Immaculate Conception Church (Tuckahoe, New York)

Church of the Immaculate Conception
Facade of the church from street level
Church of the Immaculate Conception Location in New York
Location	53 Winter Hill Road, Tuckahoe, New York
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Tradition	Latin Rite
Website	Immaculate Conception Church
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	1853
Dedication	Blessed Virgin Mary
Consecrated	1911
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Style	French Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	November 8, 1908
Completed	1911
Specifications
Length	150 feet (46 m)
Width	70 feet (21 m)
Materials	Tuckahoe marble
Administration
Archdiocese	Archdiocese of New York

The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic parish church of the Archdiocese of New York located in Tuckahoe, New York. Founded in 1853, the parish is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following a merger, the parish of the Immaculate Conception now includes the Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Church of the Assumption.

History

The Church of the Immaculate Conception was created as a mission of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in New Rochelle in 1853 under the pastorship of Fr. Thomas McLoughlin by order of the Archbishop of New York, John Hughes. Though not yet an official parish or mission, mass was said regularly by Fr. Eugene Maguire from St. Raymond's Church in the Bronx in the colonial-era Marble House that lies across NYS Route 22. By virtue of its founding date, the Church of the Immaculate Conception is the oldest Catholic church in Eastchester (the town in which the village of Tuckahoe is located) and one of the oldest in Westchester County, as well as one of the oldest institutions of any kind in Eastchester.

With a growing Irish, Italian, German, and Lithuanian population of Catholics in the Bronxville area of Eastchester (the area not yet incorporated into a village), as well as the neighboring communities in Eastchester and Yonkers, Immaculate Conception's priest, Fr. John G. McCormack with the assistance of Fr. Joseph L. McCann and Fr. Martin Lydon, established a mission in 1905 that would eventually become Church of St. Joseph.

Construction of a wooden church building began in Waverly Square and Archbishop Michael Corrigan deeded to the young parish the plot of land on which it sat in 1886, though it had initially been gifted to the Archdiocese of New York 32 years prior by a local Catholic quarryman. A belfry was subsequently added in 1885. The mission that was dedicated in the honor of the Immaculate Conception was elevated to the rank of a parish in 1878 by Cardinal John McCloskey upon the visit and recommendation of the archdiocese's vicar general William Quinn. The parish's first pastor, Fr. John Ambrose Keogh, was appointed that year. The parish was incorporated on April 5, 1886 as "The Church of the Immaculate Conception in the Village of Tuckahoe, County of Westchester, N.Y." and lay trustees were appointed.

With the appointment of Fr. John G. McCormick as paster, a new plot of land that would house the present-day French Gothic Revival church was purchased for $15,000, a price asked by Catholic owners significantly lower than market value. The new building was designed by Thomas J. Duff and the cornerstone was laid on November 8, 1908 with a parade and ceremony attended by 5,000 locals. For lack of funds, parishioners (many of whom worked in the Tuckahoe quarries) helped to build the church part-time. The church was completed in 1911 whose dimensions measured 150 feet (46 m) in length and 70 feet (21 m) in width. The stone facade was constructed from locally quarried Tuckahoe marble. Stained glass windows were delivered from Munich and the pipe organ of the old wooden church was disassembled and moved to the new church, where it remains today. The first mass was celebrated August 20, 1911 and the building was consecrated the following year on May 18 by Msgr. Patrick J. Hayes. At the time of consecration, around 900 Catholics were parishioners of the church. Over time, adjacent properties were acquired, on which the present-day school building and other facilities were constructed. This new church building was quickly supplemented by the construction of the nearby Church of the Assumption as a national parish for the many new Italian immigrants.

In 1912, the School of the Immaculate Conception was founded as a parochial elementary school in the no-longer-used wooden church building approximately a mile away and by the following year, was staffed by religious sisters. By 1914, the enrollment in the school had reached 75 students who, with the sisters, were instructed by a lay teacher. A new School of the Immaculate Conception was later built in its current location abutting the church and the former building was demolished. The Knights of Columbus established a Tuckahoe Council in 1920 and operate out of the Immaculate Conception parish.

In 2014, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, announced that the neighboring parish of the Church of the Assumption would be merged with the Church of the Immaculate Conception as part of larger archdiocese-wide mergers.