9. St. Matthias Catholic Church was used for scenes in The Irishman
Located on Catalpa Avenue is St. Matthias Catholic Church, one of Ridgewood’s oldest parishes. On May 2, 1908, Bishop Charles E. McDonnell of the Diocese of Brooklyn desired to create a new Roman Catholic parish for practitioners in Evergreen and Ridgewood. To do so, Reverend Nicholas M. Wagner was appointed the pastor of St. Matthias R.C. Church, which held its first Holy Mass on August 30 at a nearby restaurant near what was once Ridgewood Park and is now the area surrounding Myrtle and Seneca Avenues. One week later, Father Wagner secured 20 lots on Elm Avenue, now Catalpa, from the Meyerose Estate. Ground was broken on the new property on March 19 of the following year creating a new church and the School of St. Matthias.
Following the end of World War I, construction began on a new church building, with the first phase, a basement church, being completed in August 1919. After raising the necessary funding, the cornerstone of the current St. Matthias Church was completed on October 5, 1924. In 2012, the Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains an important part of the Ridgewood South Historic District. Most recently, St. Matthias Catholic Church was also used in Martin Scorcese’s 2019 Netflix film, The Irishman, with its inside being featured during the baptismal scene. In addition, the area around the church was used for exterior shots of the Philadelphia-based restaurant Villa di Roma, the Friendly Lounge, and for the scene in which Frank beats up a grocery store owner.
