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Massive Chelsea Church Restoration Captured on Film

By DNAinfo Staff on February 3, 2011 10:06pm  | Updated on February 4, 2011 6:45am

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CHELSEA — Patrick Brewis, director of stewardship at the Church of Saint Francis Xavier, had never picked up a video camera before Easter of 2009.

But gazing around the soon-to-be restored, nearly 130-year-old church's deteriorating stained glass, broken lanterns, pulverized paint job and blackened radiators, murals and marble, he felt suddenly struck by a sense of loss.

"I got kind of melancholic, and I thought this church is never going to look the same," said Brewis, 44, who joined the church, located at 46 W. 16th Street, eight years ago and directed its recent capital campaign.

From that point onward, he used every spare moment to document the process, carried out by EverGreene Architectural Arts and Thomas A. Fenniman Architect, with a Sony HD camera.

Today, the Church of Saint Francis Xavier glistens, with marble that looks as though "they came in with Crest white strips," Brewis said. And this Saturday, the church is offering a behind-the-scenes tour of its decade-long restoration project, concluded in 2010.

For those who come, the church's priest, Pastor Joseph Constantino, said he hopes peering around St. Francis Xavier's restored and renovated grandeur will leave "their aesthetic and spiritual senses heightened and enlivened."

But Manhattanites who missed their chance to get tickets to the sold out tour can look forward to Brewis' feature-length documentary about the process and people of the Jesuit institution, constructed between 1878-1882. Now in the scripting and editing phases, Brewis plans to premier the film inside the church over two weekends in the fall.

While the restoration and renovation processes gave Brewis cause to film, he also sought to capture "the spirit of the people who have always been here, embedded in the structure."

For that, he shot nearly 90 hours of footage that included interviews with current parishioners and testimonials about the place's history.

Back in the 1890s, a deaf-mute choir signed the music for Sunday masses — at a time in American when most people suffering these ailments were institutionalized and forgotten. In the 1960s, it was the first Catholic church to celebrate a mass for civil rights, and today it hosts an LGBT ministry and a peace and social justice program.

"The focus of the documentary is on the journey home," Brewis said, explaining that he hopes to link the restoration and aspirations of modern churchgoers to the dreams of the place's 19th century pioneers. "It's been a home to so many people who needed a home, throughout its history."

The Church of St. Francis Xavier is open to the public during daytime hours. The wheelchair accessible entrance is at 55 W. 15th Street.