Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded in 1855 to serve the needs of the burgeoning Irish and German Catholic population of Red Hook, Brooklyn, The name of the parish refers to a story in the Gospel of Luke in which the pregnant Virgin Mary visits with her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant, with the future John the Baptist. According to the story, Fetus John the Baptist sense Fetus Jesus within Mary, and starts to leap around Betsy's womb.
Anyway . . . This is the third building for the parish. The congregation quickly outgrew the original building, and the second, larger church was destroyed by fire. The third church, this one, was consecrated in 1898. The Romanesque and Gothic Revival stone church is constructed of Manhattan schist, the native bedrock stone of New York City. The architect is not identified in any church history, but is possibly the work of Thomas Houghton.
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