In September 1836, Irish immigrant, Cornelius Heeney donated a portion of his land for the site of a new Catholic church that had been proposed for residents living on the southwest side of Fulton Street. When the new St. Paul’s Church was built, it occupied a large field on the corner of Heeney’s farm, now the corner of Congress and Court Streets.
At 234 Congress St, Brooklyn, N.Y., much of St. Paul’s church at Court and Congress Streets was designed and built about 1838 by Gamaliel King, one of the architects of Brooklyn Borough Hall, allowing the claim that this church is the oldest Catholic church in continuous use in Brooklyn. Dedication of the completed edifice took place on January 21, 1838, with the Bishop of the Diocese of New York, John DuBois, presiding. Less then ten years later, on May 3, 1848, Heeney passed away. His body was buried in the back garden of the church.
Over the years, there have been so many additions and renovations that very little remains of King’s original design. The steeple was added in the 1860’s, and other enlargements were made. The church fronts on Court Street, the chapel and former rectory on Congress Street. For a while, the parish had three names: St. Peter (from the church on Hicks Street that is now a condo), Our Lady of Pilar, and St. Paul. The signs now name it as the parish of St. Peter and St. Agnes, with services alternating between the two church buildings.