Historic Harlem Church To Be Converted Into School After Sale

HARLEM, NY — More than a year after hosting its last worship service and months after it was sold to a developer, the historic church known as the "St. Patrick's of Harlem" has found a new tenant: a charter school founded by the rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Capital Prep Harlem, a grade 6-12 school with campuses in East Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut, will move next year into the All Saints Catholic Church on East 129th Street and Madison Avenue, the school announced Thursday.

In March, Patch reported that the 135-year-old church had been sold to a developer for $11 million. That sale followed years of declining attendance at the church, which was eventually deconsecrated in 2020 following a merger with another parish.

While its status as a city landmark meant that the new owners could not alter the church's exterior, the sale still prompted worries about the fate of the building, which was designed by James Renwick, Jr.: the architect behind St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown and the Smithsonian Institution's "castle" building in Washington.

Capital Prep will take over the entire church complex, including the main building and also an adjoining school. Its move, coinciding with the 2022-23 school year, will allow the school to expand capacity from 500 to 700 students.

The new campus will include 40 newly-constructed classrooms and offices, science labs, a cafeteria, a sports room and an outdoor communal courtyard. The main church building will serve as a "great hall" for assemblies and performances.

“The kids of Harlem should have access to opportunity and a quality education and deserve to learn on a campus that reflects the level of excellence we aspire for them to achieve," said Combs, who was born in Harlem, in a statement.

"Harlem's Cathedral"

Built starting in the 1880s, All Saints was designated a landmark in 2007 along with the school and adjacent parish house.

"Among the many churches [Renwick] designed during his long career, the Church of All Saints has been called his best," the Landmarks Preservation Commission wrote in its report.

At its peak, All Saints hosted thousands of congregants each week and "deserved to be identified as Harlem's Cathedral," its final administrator, Father Gregory Chisholm, told Patch by email in January. By 2015, however, attendance had declined steeply, and the church's parish merged with the Parish of St. Charles Borromeo, a separate Black Catholic parish in Harlem.

Starting in 2018, potential buyers — both religious and secular — expressed interest in the building. Some sought to keep it as a house of worship, while others considered business, educational or artistic uses, Chisholm said. The eventual buyer, CSC Coliving, specializes in shared, low-rent housing, and has renovated buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Mexico City.

Capital Prep Harlem opened in fall 2016, though Combs's involvement as its co-founder was not revealed until months before the opening. Combs spent years meeting with community leaders about improving educational opportunities in the neighborhood, and eventually recruited a co-founder, Steve Perry, from another charter school.

"We are honored to reinvigorate a landmarked gem of Harlem, revitalizing its original place as a center of education for the community through our new campus," said Perry, who oversees the school network while Combs acts as an advisor and provides financial support.