The New York City Dept. of Buildings has received two complaints stating that the Archdiocese of New York has falsified documents to obtain a demolition permit for the demolition of St Brigid's church at 121 Ave. B in the East Village. On June 19th Jerome O'Connor of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg detailing his exploits at the Dept. of Buildings and questioning the validity of the permits. Two days later Peter C. Harding sent a letter on behalf of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's contesting the legitimacy of the permits. On June 30th Jerome O'Connor returned to the Dept. of Buildings with journalist Matt Elzwig from the newspaper Downtown, which was written about in the July 10th issue of Downtown. On the same day the Dept. of Buildings issued a letter to the Archdiocese stating that they intended to revoke the permit and requested that the Archdiocese submit paperwork proving ownership of the church. At the present time the job is listed on hold on the Dept. of Buildings' website while they investigate the matter. Acting Commissioner Santulli from the Manhattan Borough Dept. of Buildings responded to Mr. O'Connor's letter on July 7th and then Mr. O'Connor sent a response on July 9th.

The rich history of St. Brigid's begins in the 1840s, with the increased influx of Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine.

The choice of architect for St. Brigid's was Patrick Keely, an up-and- coming Catholic Church architect. Born in County Tipperary in 1816, Keely emigrated to the U.S. at age 25 and settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where he worked as a carpenter. Because Keely's formal training in architecture is undocumented, it is believed he learned design and construction from his father, a builder. After completing an altar and reredos (altar screen) for St. James Pro-Cathedral and going on to build St. Peter and Paul's Church in Brooklyn in 1846.

St. Brigid's may in fact be the oldest Keely church still standing. Its corner stone was laid on September 10th, 1848, and construction was completed in a somewhat astonishing fifteen months. Designed in the Carpenter's Gothic style, the building is without transepts or apse (that is to say, it is rectilinear rather than cross-shaped), and features a nave (center seating area) flanked by a north and south aisle, each with a second-story seating gallery fronted by elaborate wainscoting. The vaulted ceiling above the nave is said to have been fashioned by shipbuilders as an upside-down boat; and indeed, one student of architecture sees this theory borne out in the "extraordinary flattening of the nave vaulting," which resembles the hull of a ship. Sculpted faces that abut the corbels supporting the roof are said to honor the shipwrights who built the church.