Watson House / Our Lady of the Rosary Church and the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton

Watson House, also, Our Lady of the Rosary Church and the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton. Exploring Lower Manhattan. , Watson House , 7 State Street, Designed by John McComb, Jr., 1793. , Built for James Watson and his wife, Mary, the Federalist row house at 7 State Street was part of a residential district lined with fine brick townhouses belonging mostly to shipping merchants. The double-story wooden columns of the extension’s upper floors are said to be made of old ship masts. One of the few downtown structures to survive the Great Fire of 1835, the building is a New York City landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1883, Charlotte Grace O’Brien founded the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the protection of Irish Immigrant Girls. In its first 25 years, the Mission took care of more than 1000,000 of the 307,823 Irish women who arrived at the Port of New York after the Irish potato famine., Our Lady of the Rosary Church and the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton , 8 State Street, Designed by Shanley and Sturges (a descendant of Mother Seton), 1965. , Prior to renovation, the original structure of 8 State Street was at one time the home of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton. After her beatification, the site became the National Shrine to Saint Seton, the first American born saint. Today, Watson House and Our Lady of the Rosary Church are part of St. Peter – Our Lady of the Rosary Parish (spcolr.org). , Widowed and with five children after her husband died from tuberculosis in Italy, Mother Seton converted from Protestant to Roman Catholic upon her return to New York City. She established the country’s first order for religious sisters, The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, and the first free Catholic school for girls, both in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The Sisters of Charity went on to forge the first American social welfare system with hospitals, educational institutions and orphanages – including St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City and the New York Foundling orphanage. Baltimore Archbishop Francis Patrick Kenrick said, “Elizabeth Seton did more for the church in America than all of us bishops together.”, More historical details about the Irish Mission can be found at watsonhouse.org and about Saint Seton’s life and legacy at scny.org.