The Mystery of the Catacombs in Manhattan

This really is a history mystery, and I'm hoping that someone will be able to confirm or deny this (actually, I hope that it is true).

Back when Frozen Charlotte (my NaNoWriMo mystery) was in a previous incarnation as The Black Mirror (which draft will someday become the second in the Eleanor Grey detective series, I hope) I did a lot of research into New York's underground places - not just the subways and secret passages under the street, but also hidden rooms (as in the Seabury Tredwell house) and other odd semi-subterranean and secret places. Julia Solis' New York Underground is a superb resource, by the way, as is the non-New-York but fascinating zine, Infiltration.

Anyway - I wanted to have Eleanor searching for a clue down in some catacombs (underground burial galleries and passageways) under an old church. Now, most sources I've found do not say anything about their being catacombs in New York City. However, in a 1939 book called Here Is New York by Helen Worden, she writes:

Ghosts might also flit through the catacombs beneath the Church of the Holy Apostles, at Twenty-Eighth Street and Ninth Avenue. The passageway which forms a labyrinthlike network of underground chambers was once the repository for coffins. Years ago bodies awaiting burial were kept there. They say there are about seven different exits from those spooky walks.

The cornerstone of Holy Apostles was laid in 1846 and the building was completed two years later. The church is a designated New York Landmark; and what the NYC Architecture site calls its "ambiance of a quaint country chapel" and differing architectural styles make it a charming addition to its Chelsea neighborhood.

I did a search for other mentions of the catacombs (and the seven different exits) but (so far) have not found any corroboration. However, Worden tends to be pretty accurate in her New York lore, and knew a lot of people interested in old New York so I would imagine there is something to this. For now, I have created a fictional NYC church based on Holy Apostles - with catacombs.

Image of the church from NYC Architecture. More pictures of Holy Apostles and its Chelsea surroundings over here at the Bridge and Tunnel Club. And see here also at NYC AGO (a historic church organ site primarily).