[3] A special feature of The New York Times in 1901 mentioned the church among other Catholic structures in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, describing the group "for the most part...limit[ing] themselves to the functions of a parish church, in districts where social needs are otherwise supplied.

This one conducts services in three languages: English, Spanish and Chinese.”[5] In 1995 the interior vaulted ceiling of the church collapsed, and 60,000 pounds of plaster fell, breaking through the floor into the basement parish hall.

After the school had been condemned and closed in 1942, it had been torn down and eventually become a parking lot, used by the church and neighborhood residents.

The late 1990s was a time of rising property values, as New York City began to revitalize and the Lower East Side began to gentrify, so the parish raised the money it needed through the sale of the parking lot and the adjacent air rights.

Extensive renovation of the church included a new roof, new interior appointments salvaged from what was left from the old, and the restoration of three murals painted in the 1880s, depicting St. Patrick teaching the pagan kings of Ireland, St. Teresa[6] teaching her sisters and the crucifixion of Christ.