Saint Peter the Apostle Church

About this property

Saint Peter the Apostle Church is a historic Roman Catholic church at 94 Somerset Street in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. Originally, St. Peter's, the first Catholic church in New Brunswick was on Bayard Street consisted mostly of Irish Catholics, and was set up in 1829. The newer church building was built in 1865 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 25, 2005, for its significance in architecture. The first recorded visit of a Catholic priest to New Brunswick occurred in 1825, when a Fr. McDonough who was traveling from New York to Philadelphia stopped to visit a Catholic family here. That same year, Father John Powers, from St. Peter's Parish in New York City, came and celebrated Mass. He began offering Mass here monthly, first in a private home and then in a large room over a wheelwright's shop on George Street. In 1829, the Bishop of New York, John Dubois, sent Father Joseph Schneller to continue the monthly visits to New Brunswick. Bishop Dubois erected St. Peter & Paul Parish in 1829, and a simple brick church was built on Bayard Street in New Brunswick in 1831, although not without difficulty. Anti-Catholic sentiment made it necessary for Father Schneller to use creative means to obtain land for the new church. In 1833, Father Bernard McArdle became the first resident pastor in New Brunswick, and it was during his tenure that the New Brunswick Tornado of June 19, 1835 partially destroyed the church, which remained in use after being closed up with boards. Father John Rogers, an Irishman who came to America and became a priest at the invitation of Bishop Dubois, after meeting him in Dublin during the 1820s, became the first permanent resident pastor in 1845. In addition to his legendary pastoral zeal, Father Rogers is rightly considered the “founding pastor” of St. Peter's as we know it today. He began his tenure at St. Peter's by rescuing the church building from foreclosure, repairing and expanding it, and constructing the first parish school. However, this was only a foretaste of great things to come. With New Brunswick thriving and the Catholic population rapidly increasing, Father Rogers often traveled to surrounding towns to celebrate the sacraments. St. Peter's became the “Mother Church” of Central Jersey, with missions throughout Middlesex and Somerset Counties. In 1853, property was purchased for a new and larger church on Somerset Street across from the campus of Rutgers College. The well-known Irish-American church architect Patrick Charles Keely was commissioned to design a new “cathedral”. The present church was built from 1854 through 1865, with the cornerstone laid upon the completion of the lower church in 1856. In 1870, a magnificent chime of bells was installed, one of only three of its kind in New Jersey, which is still played on significant feasts and other special occasions. A sorely needed sacristy was added to the church in 1891. The current marble altar and reredos were installed in 1919 (the altar was reconfigured in 1967, in accordance with the liturgical reforms of Vatican II), and the stained-glass windows were replaced in 1950. In 1999, the current electronic organ was installed. The Lyceum building, constructed in 1920, served various needs of the parish and schools until 2009.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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