worship

The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the centerpiece of a fine complex of buildings located at North 5th Street and Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg. According to the "AIA Guide to NY", the church was designed by F. J. Berlenbach, Jr. and completed in 1870. But for a number of reasons, this attribution is not possible. Berlenbach can be documented as the architect of the convent and school on the west side of Havemeyer. But the design of the church – a Lombard basilica – does not appear to be from the same hand that gave us the High Victorian Gothic school and convent. Furthermore, in 1870, F. J. Berlenbach, Jr. was only 13 years old.

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is located on the corner of South Fifth Street and Rodney (formerly Ninth) Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The complex of buildings, which includes the Church, Sunday School and Parsonage, were constructed in 1884-85 to the designs of J. C. Cady & Company. The buildings were designed in the Romanesque style and constructed of Holland and Philadelphia brick with terra cotta and brownstone trim.

Now known as Most Holy Trinity and St. Mary*, the parish was originally founded as the German Church of the Holy Trinity in 1841. It was the first National parish in the Brooklyn diocese, and the second Catholic parish in Williamsburg (Sts. Peter and Paul being the first). It was also the mother church for a host of other German parishes over time.