Macdowell had rented a hall over Croton Market on 42nd Street as a temporary chapel and passed out handbills to announce the fact to the local Catholic residents.

In 1939, St. Gabriel Church on East 37th Street was closed to make way for the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, and part of the congregation was directed to St.

[6][7] The church hosted Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's radio and television broadcasts on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for over half a century.

The broadcasts, including the famous "Death of Stalin," were some of the most important influences in reshaping mainstream twentieth-century American attitudes on Catholicism.

[5] The parish constructed a four-story brick and stone rectory and sacristy in 1904 to designs by Jeremiah O'Rourke & Sons of Newark, New Jersey, for $31,000 ($1,100,000 in current dollars).

The following February, plans were filed to rebuild it and add a semi-octagonal chancel to the rear, at the expected total cost of $40,000 ($1,500,000 in current dollars).

[14] St. Agnes Boys High School, located behind the church on East 44th Street, relocated to the Upper West Side until closing in 2013.