Red Hook, Brooklyn, church celebrates 170 years of faith, community and resilience

After enduring fire, flood, recession, a pandemic and changing times, a Brooklyn church still stands to celebrate its 170th anniversary on Sunday.

Much as visitors to Red Hook experience today, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s clock tower was among the first sights immigrants spotted arriving in New York Harbor, said the church’s pastor, Father Claudio Antecini.

“The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of America, the land of opportunity and freedom. Now there is the Freedom Tower,” Antecini, 63, told The News. “In some places, you can see from the sea, the steeple with the clock. (Arriving immigrants) said, ‘Wow, there is hope.’ The church is a landmark, a landmark of freedom.”

“They were very religious people, very devoted. They brought it from their land, their own background — and their background is faith, faith in God,” he added.

The historic house of worship, which stands today on Richards St. near Verona St., began as a small meeting house established in 1854 on nearby Van Brunt St., commissioned by Irish, German and Italian dock and factory workers, the pastor said.

A year later, workers began digging the foundation of the first Visitation, but once completed, the congregation quickly outgrew the space as the neighborhood’s shipping and manufacturing industry boomed. In 1876 they began building a second, larger church, which stood for 20 years, until a fire destroyed it on July 12, 1896.

Congregants immediately began construction of the Gothic-revival church that stands today, made of dark Manhattan schist, a metamorphic rock that much of Manhattan sits upon.

“If you look at the ceiling, it’s built like the bottom of a ship,” Antecini said. “This church is built like an ark, like the ark of Noah, like a boat of salvation.”

The church boasts dramatic frescoes, five stained-glass windows crafted by famed designer Louis Comfort Tiffany made in 1918, and a rare 1917 Reuben Midmer & Sons pipe organ.

“There is a treasure of art here for everybody. It’s not a matter of your belief, you can come,” Antecini said. “You see the sun shining, coming through the cross, this is a miracle, in art.”

Red Hook has undergone a renaissance from its industrial shipping roots in the 1850s to becoming an incubator for artists and makers. Still, much of the neighborhood remains comprised of low-income immigrants, a demographic reflected in the church’s congregation.

“We have a lot of immigrants here, especially Latinos, and they are coming here with the same attitude, with desires to have a better life,” said Sister Emiliana Traversin, who works at the church. “The times have changed, but the situation remains somehow the same.”

As the Trump administration in recent months doubled down on its mass deportation agenda nationally and in New York City, Traversin, 51, said their immigrant parishioners have been fearing the worst.

“If you speak with people one by one, you hear they are afraid, they are concerned, they are struggling,” she said.

Aside from religious services, the church distributes food twice a week and runs youth programs, including culinary training and guitar and voice lessons.

It’s a far cry from when Antecini arrived at the parish in 2010, as the church was struggling under a nearly $400,000 debt after the 2008 financial crisis.

“This parish here was one of the parishes that was going to be closed because of lack of people, money,” Antecini said. “The people that were coming to the congregation were very poor. Now it’s changing.”

Antecini said he gave up his salary, donating it to the church, while he worked to inspire faith in a new generation of immigrants in the area, growing attendance from 70 parishioners when he arrived to roughly 400 today.

“In two years, we could run. And when I started to say, ‘OK, we can go on,’ then there was [Hurricane] Sandy,” he said.

When the 2012 hurricane struck the coastal neighborhood, the church’s sprawling basement was submerged under 10 feet of water.

“I was very discouraged,” the father said. “But we didn’t stop one day to serve the community here during Sandy.”

As Red Hook went without electricity for more than one month, the church, powered by a generator, turned into a shelter and distribution center for those in need.

“There was a lot of solidarity here in Red Hook,” the pastor recalled. “We didn’t have help from FEMA, but we had the support of people.”

With the help of volunteers and donated materials, they rebuilt. Antecini, who worked in construction before becoming a priest, pitched in, alongside his brother, a retired construction worker who came from Italy to lend a hand.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, the church stepped up for its community again.

“We decided to put the fridge outside,” the pastor said, “and we put the food (in it) and the people can come and grab it without making contact with people.”

“Someone took everything and the whole fridge away,” he said, laughing. “We had it on the cameras.”

Antecini said he “almost died” when he fell ill with the virus in March 2020, as it spread throughout their parish.

Now the pastor is looking forward to his 64th birthday on Monday — the day after they celebrate the parish’s 170th.

On Sunday evening the congregation and community members will gather for a night of live music and food to mark the milestone. The gala is also a fundraiser for the church.

“Look what an amazing gift we have received in 170 years,” Antecini said, “and to be here to see it.”