St. Augustine Catholic Church, also called Olde St. Augustine's, was consecrated in 1848. The Palladian-style church was designed by Napoleon LeBrun (who also designed the Cathedral-Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul and the Academy of Music).
The church was built to replace the Old St. Augustine Church which was completed in 1801 and which housed the Liberty Bell's "Sister Bell". The church was burned down in the anti-Catholic Philadelphia Nativist Riots on May 8, 1844. The church sued the city of Philadelphia for not providing it with adequate protection. The money awarded to the church went to rebuilding the current church, which broke ground on May 27, 1847. Frescos painted in 1848 by Nicola Monachesi during the church’s reconstruction are now thought to be the oldest existing of their kind in the United States.
Organizations founded by the church led to the creation of both Villanova University (which grew out of the St. Augustine Academy) and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Henry Gordon Thunder, Jr., a musical director at St. Augustine organized both the Choral Society of Philadelphia and its instrumental accompanists. These musicians eventually evolved into the Philadelphia Orchestra which was organized in 1900).
On June 15, 1976, St. Augustine's Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1988 the congregation of St. Augustine had shrunk to fewer than a dozen. The 1990s saw the congregation grow with Filipino Catholics from Philadelphia and the city's suburbs. The National Shrine of Santo Nino Of De Cebu was dedicated in 1992. The Shrine holds an exact replica of the oldest Christian artifact in the Philippines, a statue of the child Jesus, given as a gift by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.
In December, 1992, a powerful storm damaged the church's steeple with debris falling onto the Ben Franklin Bridge, closing the bridge for three days. The church sustained water damage and the steeple had to be disassembled and removed. A new steeple was placed in 1995 (last 2 photos).
Fresco detail
Original church Early 1900's (before 4th St 1960
lowered for B.F. Bridge
Shrine
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