St. Mary’s Hill 1 - St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: 1 St Marys Hill, Lancaster, New York

"Although officially formed as a parish in 1847, the Catholics of Lancaster had purchased two acres of land on January 6, 1834 for $80. The few Catholic families, mostly of German extraction, had been served by itinerant priests as early as 1829. Among the early priests who would visit was John Neumann, an immigrant from Bohemia who would go on to become Bishop of Philadelphia, and was recently recognized as a saint. During his visits to Lancaster from 1837 to 1840, the faithful built a school for thirty students near the crossroads of Transit Road and Broadway, and a rough board church on St. Mary’s Hill in which he said Mass once a month.

In 1847, the trustees of the Catholic Society of Lancaster deeded their lands over to John Timon, first Bishop of the newly-created Diocese of Buffalo. Under the direction of Rev. Xavier Tschenhens, a Russian of noble birth, work started soon after on a new church, using bricks from newly-established brickyards along the Erie railroad. By the late 1880’s, that church was too small and the structure was enlarged by an apse and narthex, a new roof and stained-glass windows. The church was re-sided in the 1920’s, when a shale brick façade was installed over the softer, local clay brick. New windows were obtained from Austria in the 1930's, and the sacristy was enlarged in the - 1950’s.

The old school (far right) was converted into a convent for the nuns when a new brick school (to the right of the church) was built in several stages, starting in 1904. The convent was demolished about 1960 when a new convent was attached to the high school on Laverack Avenue. Soon after 1904, the parish instituted high school classes, establishing the first parochial high school in the nation, and received an official charter from the Regents of the State of New York in 1912. In 1913, an addition doubled the size of the school and provided a stage and other needed support rooms. By 1925, there were 675 students registered in all grades (compared to 996 in the public schools).

The high school was moved to a separate facility on Laverack Avenue north of the railroad in 1955, and the old school was torn down in 1978. Materials salvaged from the school were reused to restore the Lancaster Town Hall and Opera House, including the wainscotting for the first floor hallway, dressing cubicles under the stage, iron brackets over the bus shelter and rear door, and benches for the Town Board meeting room."(1)

Source

(1) Lancaster, New York, Architecture and History