St. Mary's Catholic Church of Katonah

First constructed in 1890, St. Mary’s Church in Katonah was one of the later buildings to be moved from Old Katonah to New Katonah. Unlike many other buildings which were moved intact, the church was dismantled and reconstructed on its new site in 1901. Designed in the Gothic style, the church is two stories high on its northeastern façade, five bays wide and five deep. Attached to the church is a three-story bell tower in a square shape with a bell cast roof at its north west corner. A large lancet window adorns the main façade, ogee-arched stained glass windows are on the sides and rectangular windows elsewhere on the church. Louvres cover the third story tower openings and the porch on the front façade is surmounted by a gable roof with turned posts and trefoil decoration.

Like the Protestant congregations of Old Katonah, the Catholic congregation first began worship in a hall, not a church. They met in Green’s Hall of Old Katonah in 1867.  The impetus to build their own church began in 1889 when the rector of St. Joseph’s Parish in Croton Falls announced that Bishop Corrigan’s desired the construction of a Catholic church in Katonah. The fundraising campaign raised $1900 for the construction; $400 of this sum went towards the purchase of the land. On October 14^th, 1890, St. Mary’s was dedicated. 

Soon after that construction of the church, it was moved to the New Katonah Village due to the construction of the New Croton Reservoir. Immediately after their move, the church acquired an 1860s Victorian Style house and moved it next to the church to serve as a rectory building.

In 1921, St. Mary’s Church opened up a school on Valley Road for four grades. This school was known as St. Mary’s Grammar School and was dedicated by Archbishop Patrick J. Hayes. This school building has an interesting history because it previously served as a Knights of Columbus meeting hall for soldiers during the First World War, which was located in Longacre Square (now Times Square) in New York City. It was moved to its new site and remodeled to serve as a school. The school continued to expand over the years. In 1924 the Hawthorne House was acquired to serve as a convent for the Sisters of Divine Compassion, which staffed the school. That same year, an auditorium-gym was constructed, as well as high school classrooms. The school became the John F. Kennedy Catholic High School of Somers in 1967.

In 1925, a quarter century after its move to New Katonah, St. Mary’s went under renovation to increase its seating capacity. The church expanded towards its rectory, incorporating its sacristy into the church itself. After the completion of the church’s expansion, the local press of Katonah commented that, “It speaks well for a town when a church has to be enlarged.”

After World War II and the Korean War, Katonah Village experienced a population boom due in part to the construction of the Saw Mill River Road Parkway in 1956. As a result, St. Mary’s Parish, which included the church and St. Matthias’ Mission in Bedford Hills, added 300 families to its registrars between 1948 and 1958.

With the designation of Katonah Village as a historic district in 1982, there were plans to demolish the old rectory building, but instead, a new rectory was constructed and the original was renovated for the Archdiocesan Bicentennial Project.

Duncombe, Frances. Katonah: The History of a New York Village and Its People. Katonah, NY: The Society, 1961.

Poust, Mary Ann. “Historic Parish Celebrates 100 Years in Katonah.” Catholic New York. Catholic New York, May 2, 2014. https://www.cny.org/stories/historic-parish-celebrates-100-years-in-katonah,1774?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=stories&town_id=.

Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Elmsford, NY: Westchester County Historical Society, 2003.

“New York SP Katonah Village Historic District.” National Archives and Records

Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, August 12, 1983.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323077.