St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The towering church at 1409 Pacific Avenue is St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, finished in 1905. St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. A former altar boy at the church, John P. O'Neill, who became an FBI counter-terrorism expert, is buried in the churchyard; he was killed in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Images

Pacific Ave. facade of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church in 2010 photo (smallbones)

Interior of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church with pipe organ in 2015 photo (farragutful)

Window, Interior design, Building, Symmetry

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The architect of the Roman Revival style church was Edwin F. Durang. Two thousand people attended the ceremony when the cornerstone was laid on July 6th, 1902. The church was finished by September 1905 at a cost of $128,000. The building is 150 feet long, 76 feet wide along Pacific Avenue, and towers to 120 feet. The 142 stained glass windows were manufactured in Germany and Philadelphia. The church was named for Nicholas of Tolentine, a priest and Augustinian friar who was born Nicholas Gurutti in 1245 in Macerata, Italy, and died in Tolentine, Italy in 1305...

St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church is currently one of three Roman Catholic churches in Atlantic City, all part of the Parish of Saint Monica; the church offers masses on Saturdays and Sundays in English. Another of the parish's local churches, Our Lady Star of the Sea (2651 Atlantic Ave., built in 1897), has masses in English, Spanish and Vietnamese; a school is affiliated with this church. The third church, St. Michael (10 N. Mississippi Ave.), dates to 1912.

Additional Information