8. St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral was NYC’s Roman Catholic Cathedral Before St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown
Though many New Yorkers immediately point to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown as the city’s Roman Catholic cathedral, this was not always the case. St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, located on Mulberry Street between Prince and Houston Streets, was the seat of the Archdiocese of New York until 1879. Though not the first Roman Catholic church in the city (that title belongs to St. Peter’s Church in the Financial District), it was built as a second sanctuary for the city’s growing Catholic population. At the time, the church was built amid acres of farmland. The church’s architect, Joseph-Francois Mangin, had co-designed City Hall and led construction efforts between 1809 and 1815.
For the first two decades, the church was the ending point for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The church was almost sacked in 1836 after escalating tensions between Irish Catholics and anti-Catholic Know-Nothings. Two years later, Mozart’s primary librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, had his funeral here. The cathedral burned down in 1866 but was rebuilt within the next year. The basilica hosts a series of secret catacombs with 35 family crypts and five clerical vaults.