As you probably have noticed, Yonkers has many churches, specifically Roman Catholic churches. In the early part of the 20th Century an the late part of the 19th Century, many immigrants came to Yonkers from Ireland, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere with high Catholic populations. Each community wanted to keep its unique liturgical customs alive so they built their own churches and many times brought their own priests to administor the Catholic faith to them.
All of these churches are very historic for a number of reasons. First, because of the architecture used. Every church is unique in this regard. Second, because they were (and some still are) cultural centers of Yonkers where ideas were discussed and people grew up. Every church is unique in this regard as well.
Unfortunately, with socio-economic changes, many of the churches west of the Saw Mill River parkway are in great danger of being shutdown because of the high cost of maintaining them within their tiny donation incomes. It our hope that by making people aware of these churches that people will start to visit them. They need our help more than ever at this moment. There were once many culturally rich and historic synagogues in Yonkers, but almost all of them have been lost. Let us not allow the same fate to happen to these historical churches in which Yonkers' cultural heritage lies.
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