Byrne purchased the former Second Avenue Presbyterian Church, which was dedicated by Bishop John Hughes on June 5, 1842.

[8] It had been suggested by some parishioners, that the church should be turned into a shrine for Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and candidate for sainthood.

[9] The original painted-timber Greek Revival sanctuary was built in 1832 at 48 Second Avenue[10] as the Second Avenue Presbyterian Church[11] and was designed by the prominent New York firm of Town & Davis, which then included Alexander Jackson Davis, J. H. Dakin, and James Gallier.

[2] It has been described as "starkly institutional"[11] and "a modern architectural cartoon exhibiting a gross idea with no detail.

"[13] The parish included within its territory the headquarters of the Catholic Worker Movement and was the site of the Funeral Mass of its co-founder, Dorothy Day, in December 1980.