Efforts to landmark Dyker Heights church fall short
Dyker Heights residents and preservationists are upset that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has turned down their bid to landmark St. Rosalia Catholic Church at 14th Avenue and 63rd Street. The church was “relegated to profane [non-sacred] use” last May by the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The fight to landmark the venerable church building has been led by the Guardians of the Guardian group, the same organization that has sought to save the nearby Angel Guardian Home, according to Brooklyn Daily.
The church was founded by Italian immigrants around the turn of the last century, but in the 1940s, area Catholics founded another church, the Basilica of Regina Pacis, nearby. While the Diocese has not yet found a buyer for St. Rosalia, it has already started removing stained glass windows, pews and statues from the building, Brooklyn Daily said. Money from the sale would go toward maintaining Regina Pacis.
