[3][failed verification] Due to parish financial needs, St. Joseph's Church was sold to Marine Colonel Bronislaus A. Gill in 1981.

: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels (1983), author William Kennedy stated that Gill gave The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York the option to buy back the property at the same price for which he purchased it.

[7] In 1987, the church was the site of some scenes filmed for the movie Ironweed starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

[7] By then, St. Joseph's Church needed up to $2 million worth of repairs to fix cracked stained-glass windows, a leaking roof, the building's foundation, and a rusted and collapsed iron fence.

The Diocese then organized a committee composed of representatives from the church, the Ten Broeck Triangle Preservation League, Historic Albany Foundation, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Mayor Jerry Jennings, Albany County Executive Michael Breslin, and NYS Assemblyman John McEneny to figure out new uses for the building.

[9] That year, St. Joseph's Church was sold for $1 to the Abate family, which owned a pair of night club/restaurants in Troy and a restaurant on Lark Street in Albany.

Within a month, the city turned the property over to the Historic Albany Foundation, which had obtained a $300,000 matching grant from the state for continued work on the building.

[13][14] In 2007, after St. Joseph's Church was made safe for public use, the Historic Albany Foundation and the city hosted Obsequi (a multi-media performance of dance and music) there.

[24] The ceiling is in a hammerbeam roof–style of wooden beams projecting from the roof and walls carved ornately with angels and religious symbols.

[3][failed verification] The Protestant Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut was based on the architectural plans for St.