St. Augustine's Church, circa 1900. Built in 1894 and designed by Louis H. Giele, St. Augustine's Church was the home of a congregation that was established in 1849. The church structures that predated this building were a wooden church built in 1850 and a small brick structure built in 1858 (and destroyed by fire in 1894). In the early decades of the 20th century the parish was thriving with a large Irish, German, and Italian immigrant community. The parish and neighboring school suffered in the population decline of the mid century and the financial crises of the 1970s and 1980s. The Archbishop of New York closed the church and school in 2011. The church was demolished in 2013 and plans for the site include a 12-story affordable housing building.

Although one of the churches on this walk dates to early Dutch settlers of the Bronx (St. Ann’s built circa 1841), most are churches which were built by and serviced the immigrant communities of Mott Haven and the larger area of the South Bronx. As the Bronx’s population grew in the late 19th and early 20th century it swelled with the influx of German, Irish, and Italian communities. Most remain in service today, ministering to the Spanish-speaking, African American, and African immigrant populations of the South Bronx.