A dramatic Victorian building with an understated bronze tablet honoring World War II veterans

At the corner of Pitt and Stanton Streets is a magnificent Victorian building—dark red brick, a slate roof, and a statue of the Virgin Mary holding her child high on the Pitt Street side.

The former school building for Our Lady of Sorrows Church next door, it’s a curious (and rather spooky) architectural relic. But much less showy is this tablet placed beside a first floor window on the facade.

Probably bronze when it was created and now green with time, it consists of about 200 names—all from the parish and community—who served the U.S. during World War II.

Though Our Lady of Sorrows was founded in 1867 when this swath of the Lower East Side was a German community, the names reveal a different ethnic mix—primarily Italian, many Jewish. Several of the last names are the same, suggesting that some are related.

This kind of neighborhood war memorial exists in communities all over New York City, often affixed to churches or schools. They’re not as commanding as many of the city’s great sculptures and monuments that honor veterans.

But on Veterans Day, there’s an understated power to seeing each individual name and wondering about the fate of these men and women—where they fought, and if they returned to families and neighbors who stayed behind on Lower East Side.