The first Catholic presence on the site there dated from 1810 when the Society of Jesus moved their academy to a fine old house on 50th Street and Fifth Avenue, where they created a chapel of St. Ignatius.

Bishop of New York John Dubois reopened the chapel in 1840 for Catholics employed at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and in the general neighborhood.

Curran continued raising funds to buy back the church during the Great Famine in Ireland, eventually succeeding and taking the deed in his own name.

"[2] The debt was fully paid by 1853, by which time it had become clear that a larger church for the parish was needed elsewhere as its current site had been selected for the new cathedral.

James McMahon (later of Catholic University of America) had a new church built one block east of Madison Avenue, freeing the previous site for St. Patrick's Cathedral.

[7] In January 2024, the Archdiocese of New York announced that its main offices would move in 2025 from the current Chancery building to a location adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

[9] St. John the Evangelist Church had a four-story brick and stone school at the southwest corner of First Avenue and 56th Street built in 1907 to the designs of architects Franklin A.