Design of genius
sflynn@newportri.com
NEWPORT, R.I. — Not only did architect Patrick C. Keely design St. Mary's Church on Spring Street beginning in 1847, he would build an estimated 700 ecclesiastical structures in the eastern U.S., nearly 600 of them churches, before he died at the age of 80 in 1896.
Edward "Ted" H. Furey, founder of the Keely Society and historical curator of Keely's monumental masterpiece, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, spoke Tuesday night to an audience at the nearly full St. Mary's Church about Keely's work and the history of St. Mary's.
He was the fourth speaker in the 2015-2016 Michael F. Crowley Lecture Series sponsored by the Museum of Newport Irish History.
Even knowledgeable longtime parishioners of St. Mary's such as Ann Arnold, the coordinator of the lecture series and a museum board member, said they learned a lot from Furey about the church and how it has changed through the decades.
For example, many people assumed the Stations of the Cross carved from stone from Cannes, France, were original to the church. However, Furey examined old photos of the interior and determined there were terracotta stations based on a design by Franz Mayer of Munich on the walls previously.
"I believe it was in the 1930s that the parish upgraded to the Cannes stone stations," Furey said.
The Rev. Kris von Maluski, pastor of St. Mary's, asked Furey several questions about church features — including stained-glass windows, the choir balcony and the front doors — to determine what was original and what had been changed.
What amazed many of the listeners, though, was Keely's productivity. During Keely's lifetime, the Freeman's Journal in Brooklyn, N.Y., determined he had designed nearly 700 "religious edifices" that included schools, colleges and other parish buildings. Furey said Keely's 1896 New York Times obituary said he built 700 churches.
"What gave him the inspiration and ability to build all these churches?" asked Ted Wrobel of Newport.
"He just had an incredible talent for design," Furey said. "It's like Mozart. He immediately grasped the field and it worked."
Keely was born in Thurles, Ireland, and his father, a draftsman and builder, introduced him to architecture and construction, Furey said. Keely's father and older brother worked on the building of St. Patrick's College in Thurles when Patrick Keely was 11 years old, but little is recorded of his architectural design education. Keely came to U.S. in 1842, when he was 26 years old. He was a master carver and some of his carvings can be seen in the churches he designed.
Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., was Keely's first church and was completed in 1848, Furey said. Given his limited budget and time, the church was considered an extraordinary edifice and he was hailed as a genius artist. The design and construction of the church led to numerous requests for Keely to design more churches for the exploding Irish immigrant population in the Northeast.
When construction of Fort Adams began in 1824 and continued for the next 37 years, Irish masons, stonecutters and laborers were recruited for the project. There were up to 400 laborers at the site during some periods.
The large lot at the corner of Barney and Mount Vernon streets, now vacant except for a cemetery, was the site of a small schoolhouse built in 1809 that was purchased by the Diocese of Boston in 1828 and became the first Catholic church in Newport.
St. Mary's Parish is the oldest Catholic parish in the state, Arnold said.
The mostly Irish parishioners quickly outgrew the building on Barney Street, tore it down and erected a wooden Gothic-style church at the site in 1837. A little more than a decade later, in 1847, they purchased a site on Spring Street and built Keely's impressive new stone church, dedicated as St. Mary's Church in 1852.
In Providence, he designed St. Joseph's Church at 86 Hope St. in 1851, and the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul at 30 Fenner St. in 1873.
Keely had offices in both Brooklyn and Providence, Furey said.
In Fall River, Mass., there are three Keely churches: St. Mary's Cathedral, at 327 Second St., designed in 1852; St. Joseph's Church, at 1355 North Main St., completed in 1880, and St. Patrick's Church, at 1588 South Main St., completed in 1881.
Just in New England, the list of Keely's churches goes on and on, including multiple churches in Boston.
The Rev. James Fitton, appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church in Newport in 1844, later would call Keely the "Prince of American Catholic Architects."
Furey spent time talking about the loss of many of Keely's churches, some demolished to make way for other buildings and others destroyed by fire. Some churches were redeveloped for other purposes.
From one location in Boston, Furey said, one can see seven Keely churches in South Boston and the South End. Four of them are now condominium complexes and one church is closed, he said. Only two of them are still operating churches, he said.
"The Keely churches are treasures that need to be preserved," he said.
St. Mary's Church is known nationally and internationally as the site where Jacqueline Bouvier of Newport and Virginia married then-Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts on Sept. 12, 1953, Furey said. The church is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
"I think this church will always be here," Furey said.