User:Found5dollar/Saint Patrick's Church (Whitinsville, Massachusetts)

Saint Patrick's Church, Located in the village of Whitinsville in Northbridge, Massachusetts, is a Roman Catholic church built in the italian gothic style. Constructed in 1899 by Charles Donagh Maginnis, the current structure is the second incarnation of a Roman Catholic church on the site.

History

The First Catholic Mass in Northbridge took place in 1834 in the village of Riverdale and was presided over by Father Fitton. In 1848 a Catholic Census of the [[Blackstone Valley was taken and it was found that the only Catholics in Northbridge were "fifty railroad men," believed to be mostly Irish. At this time the closest Catholic Church was in Milford, Massachusetts and these railroad men and local families had to walk roughly 10 miles to get to the church there. In 1852 a mission of St. Mary's opened in Uxbridge, Massachusetts greatly reducing this walk to only three miles, and St. Mary's church was completed in 1855.

In May of 1857, Father O'Keefe became the Pastor of all of Uxbridge and was given Whitinsville as a Mission. He then purchased a plot of lad at the corner of Church and Cross streets in the center of town. Reverend D.C. Moran had a chapel built on this plot of land in 1870 and it was subsequently dedicated to Saint Patrick. This first St. Patrick's was designed by James Murphy.

Bibliography

• Illustrated Souvenir of Whitinsville Massachusetts Eagle Printing Company, Whitinsville, Massachusetts, 1908. Pages not numbered.

References

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Ecclesiastical_Review/o-fNAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=art+St.+Patrick%27s+Church+Whitinsville&pg=PT9&printsec=frontcover

original Murals and interior decoration by L. Haberstroh & Son of 9 park street boston.

McShane Bell foundry forged the 5,240 pound bell.

As early as 1834 Father Fitton is said to have performed the first Mass in Northbridge, although the site is unknown. In 1846 Father Gibson did a Catholic Census of the valley, listing "fifty railroad men" in Northbridge, believed to be mostly Irish. In 1848 there were families who walked to Mass in Milford. By 1852 they were able to attend the new mission of St. Mary's in Uxbridge. The following year Father Sheridan became the first Pastor at St. Mary's and began saying Masses in a house on Church Street in Whitinsville as well. The Uxbridge Church of St. Mary's was finished by summer of 1855, and thus the Whitinsville faithful traveled the 3 miles there. Finally, in 1867 a mission chapel was erected in Whitinsville at the corner of Church and Cross Streets by Father O'Keefe and named for St. Patrick.

With the completion of the railroad connecting Worcester to the Port of Providence, immigration would swell the populations of the mid-valley. Whitinsville, due to the jobs at Whitin Machine Company, a textile machine manufacturer, would develop as a very unique center of varied ethnicity. There were English, Irish, Dutch, Polish, Italian, and Bohemian people, as well as French-Canadian. Thus, St. Patrick's had a congregation of Catholics perhaps more varied than any other church in the area.

Although a larger church was completed by 1879, it would not be until 1889 that Father Peter O'Reilly was appointed as first resident Pastor of the independent parish of St. Patrick's. It was he who began building a much needed mission church in Rockdale in 1892 dedicating it to St. Peter. Costing $12,000, it would seat 400.

But Rev. O'Reilly had larger visions and in 1897 would begin preparations for a new larger church in Whitinsville. He hired Charles B. McGinnis, a Boston architect, to design an Italian Gothic church. It would be of brick, with terra cotta trim, and an elegant campanile or bell-tower. The new St.Patrick's Church was dedicated on Sept.24, 1899, in a magnificent ceremony attended by thousands.

There were 937 baptisms recorded at St. Patrick's from May 1889 to Jan.1898 as well as 218 marriages. Of the 2,500 parishioners, some 860 were of Fr.-Canadian ancestry, or 30%. Father O'Reilly, like many valley priests, was fluent in French, having studied in Montreal. He did his theology work at the Grand Seminary there and was ordained in 1884.