St. Agnes Academic School

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St. Agnes is one of William Boegel’s more contemporary designs featuring a facade of buff brick and pale green enamel panels. Boegel tended toward historicist elements on his churches and schools, employing Tudor or Gothic Revival design. Here, the school is modern and square and the main decoration is a striking, curved entranceway of red polished granite topped by a large limestone cross that sits at the roofline. The complex includes amenities typical to a school of this era including an auditorium (entered from a separate wing), gymnasium, and state of the art classrooms. The older convent sits to the south of the school and according to the awards program, passage was provided internally for the nuns to go from convent directly into the school.

School & Convent, Our Lady of Mount Carmel R. C. Church

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Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Church dates from 1873 and had an elaborate French Gothic facade added in 1915 to designs of Thomas Henry Poole. The large school and convent next door however are comparitively fairly restrained. Both buildings are clad in yellow brick and have minimal detailing. Architect William Boegel tended to keep his designs somewhat spartan or traditional. The main decoration on the school (now covered by contemporary signage) is a large cross over the entrance, rising two stories in limestone.

St. Theresa’s R.C. Church

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St. Theresa’s Church remains an imposing presence in this relatively low-rise and residential section of Woodside. The design is traditionally Romanesque with little in the way of modern detailing. The materials used are buff brick with limestone detailing and a tile roof. The interior includes marble and limestone and is completely fireproof. The neighboring school closed in 2005.

St. Sebastian’s R. C. Church

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This rehabilitation was truly unusual, consisting of altering the former Loews Woodside Theatre into a new Roman Catholic church. The building sits on Roosevelt Avenue facing the elevated train line with a prominent entrance courtyard, containing the original Chamber of Commerce building plaque. The facade is now definitively Northern Italian, but the side of the building with the staircase alludes to its former role as a theater. The interior space contains no columns so that the room appears even larger than its 1,500 person capacity.