In 1844, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle printed the following prediction “THE CITY OF CHURCHES — such, in time, will be the distinctive appellation of Brooklyn.” In the ensuing decades, the incorporation of new houses of worship matched the pace of residential development and reflected the diverse ancestry of the immigrant communities who settled there. The buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries express the evolution of American church architecture, as dictated by the pride and prosperity of worshippers from Bushwick to Bay Ridge.

Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, 1961. By 1961, the vine-covered Holy Name was part of a changed neighborhood: the six-lane Prospect Expressway, completed in 1954, displaced residents of demolished apartment buildings on 18th and 19th Streets, including Italian-American parishioners of Holy Name.