St. James' Church, New York is a Roman Catholic church located at 32 James Street in Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. It is the second oldest Catholic building in New York, built in 1837 of fieldstone

Fieldstone

Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...

 and has a pair of Doric

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...

 columns flanking the entrance.

Alfred E. Smith served as an altar boy at this church when he was a student at its parochial school

Catholic school

Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

, the former St. James Elementary School

St. James Elementary School (New York)

St. James School was a Catholic elementary school located at 37 St. James Place in New York City across from St. James' Church . It is located in Lower Manhattan, in close proximity to Chinatown, One Police Plaza, the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall.On February 2, 2010, the Archdiocese of New York...

, located across the street.

This church was intended to be torn down in 1986, but was saved by the efforts of the community, especially the Ancient Order of Hibernians

Ancient Order of Hibernians

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836...

. The architect of the Greek Revival building was Minard Lafever

Minard Lafever

Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...

.

The church suffered significant damage in a fire on January 11, 2011.