St. Joseph's Parish
Troy, NY
Written
by Joan Howe
St.
Joseph’s
Church, located on Jackson Street between
Third and Fourth Streets in South Troy,
holds an important place in the history
of many Irish immigrant families. Members
of my family have been baptized, married
and buried in and from that grand structure
for at least the last 140 years — beginning
with the 1863 burial of
my Irish great-great grandparents, Edward and Margaret
(Ryan) Reardon's baby
daughter, up until the present
day, with my sister and first
cousin being parishioners.
I hope you’ll travel down “memory
lane” with me and learn about
a place that was—and still may
be—a vital part of
many Irish families of South
Troy.
During the potato
famine, as more and more Irish
settled near the iron mills of
South Troy, a new church needed
to be built. In the spring of
1847, David Hathaweay, architect,
was hired by Rev. Peter Havermans,
pastor of St. Mary’s Church,
to draw plans for the church. Eight
lots were secured from Judge
Cushman at the corner of
Third and Jackson streets.
On May 21, 1847, Bishop John
McClosky officiated at the
laying of the cornerstone,
and in that same month, men
from the Nail Factory dug
the excavation for the foundation
of the church.
In February 1848, the
original plans for St. Joseph's had
to be modified by the architect to
cut cost because money was needed to
build the Cathedral in Albany and to
rebuild St. Peter's Church which burned
February 12, 1848. Interestingly, on
Nov. 1, 1848, the first Mass was celebrated
by Rev. Peter Havermans in the unfinished
St. Joseph's Church.
Finally, the magnificent
church, built to seat 2,000 people,
was completed six years later. The
$100,000 price tag included such items
as marble altar, mahogany pews, baptistery,
soaring bell tower with mounted bells,
magnificent choir loft and organ, and
breathtaking Tiffany windows. A rectory
was attached to the church, a large
parish hall built in 1897 which housed
four bowling lanes, a gymnasium, and
an auditorium. This completed the parish
campus.
St.
Joseph’s Church and Rectory, Third Street side, circa 1880.
Once
called
the “Iron
Workers Church”, St. Joseph’s
was a proud symbol for the Irish community—a
sign of their strong faith, hard work
and dedication. In addition to attending
Mass and receiving the sacraments,
church-sponsored social organizations
and functions would have been an essential
way the parish helped my ancestors
become acclimated to their new home.
Parishioners socialized after Mass
and vespers and a special services
were held on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.
St. Patrick’s Day brought
parades, special Masses,
and plenty of friendly celebration
and drinking. Those who were
Irish speakers sometimes
used their native tongue
and played tunes on the Irish
flute.
St.
Joseph’s Church facing Jackson Street, undated.
My great-grandfather John
Reardon and his brother, Patrick,
would have attended the
parish school which was organized
in 1861 and initially staffed
by seven Sisters of St. Joseph
of Carondelet from St. Louis,
Missouri. The Sisters arrived
at the invitation of the pastor of St. Joseph’s
parish, who informed the sisters
that the “unruly youth of
South Troy” were in need
of their guidance. Subsequently,
St. Joseph’s Academy was
built in 1876, with one of the
school buildings facing Third
Street and the other on Monroe
Street. For many years St. Joseph’s
Academy maintained a high
school, which was discontinued
with the opening of Catholic
Central High School in 1924.
The
Sisters lived in
a house at 445 Third
Street until 1868
when they moved
into St. Joseph’s
Convent on Fourth Street at the head
of Jackson Street. They operated a
private school for girls until 1883.
The Sisters, needing more space, later
moved to the property of St. Joseph’s
Seminary.
St.
Joseph’s Convent, Fourth and Jackson Streets, circa 1880.
A maternity hospital
was built east of the church on Fourth
Street in 1923, on or near the site
where the first convent had been built.
When the maternity hospital closed
in 1952, the building then served as
a convent for the Sisters until 1963
when they moved to a new Provincial
House in nearby Latham, N.Y.
My grandmother, Margaret
(Reardon) Duffy,
received her grade school
and high school education
at St. Joseph’s
Academy, and my mother and her
three sisters completed their
grammar school education at St.
Joseph’s and then their
high school education at Catholic
Central, which is now West Hall,
a part of RPI’s campus.
In
September
1957,
I was
placed
into
the hands
of Sister
Immaculata,
kindergarten
teacher,
just
in time
to enjoy
the opening
of the
brand-new
St. Joseph’s grade
school, located just North of the parish
hall at the corner of Fourth and Monroe
Streets. Here, the Sisters continued
their quest to give students a superior
education—often using
methods involving corporal
punishment!
The New St. Joseph’s School ~ Sister Immaculata’s
Kindergarten Class ~ 1957
(
Fourth Street is outside the window)
In
addition
to learing
reading,
writing,
and arithmetic
at school,
church
was an
integral
part
of the
Catholic
students’ lives.
Attendance at Sunday and First Friday
Masses, Tuesday Novenas, confession,
May processions, Stations of the Cross,
and Holy Day Masses was required. Families
attended church and celebrated the
students’ reception
of First Holy Communion and
Confirmation. Public school
students received religious
(CCD) instructions and received
the sacraments as well.
Solemn
occasions
were
also
part
of our
family’s life
as parishioners of St. Joseph’s.
Before funeral homes were common, a
black cloth was draped over the front
door of the home of the deceased to
indicate that a member of the household
had died. The wake was held in the
front room, with refreshments served
in another area of the home. And we
all know that the beer flowed freely
at Irish wakes! A few of my Reardon
ancestors’ obituaries state that
the funerals were to begin at their
residence and “thence to St.
Joseph’s Church where a requiem
high mass will be sung.” So beginning
with baptism and ending with funeral
masses and prayers at burial, St. Joseph’s
Church has been important
to my family in South Troy
for almost a century and
a half.
Visiting
South
Troy
today,
it is
obvious
that
much
has changed
in the
area
since
my Irish
ancestors’ early days in America.
I find little evidence of many of the
things they would have seen and encountered
in their daily lives. But anyone who
takes the time to open the heavy doors
and enter St. Joseph’s Church
will soon get the feeling that, inside
that long-standing structure, time
has stood still. It’s one of
the few places we can visit and feel
linked to a world long gone—a
world that our ancestors
experienced so many years
ago.
St.
Joseph’s Church, Christmas Season of 2003
* Source for information
is History of the City of Troy
by Weise & Bardin,
Troy, N.Y: 1877.
** Source for information
is Troy and Rensselaer County,
A History by Rutherford Hayner, Lewis
Historical Pub. Co., NY, 1925.
*** Source for church
construction information was
taken from a piece of paper discovered
in May 2005 in an old record book
at St. Joseph’s Rectory
entitled, CHRONICLES
CORNER , author unknown.
|