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St. louiS cHurcH
Many of the early parishioners of St. Louis Church in Pittsford were Irish immigrants who had come to the area to dig the Erie Canal and work on the railroads.
People initially traveled to Fairport in order to attend Mass, but in 1856 a small group invited Father Louis Miller to celebrate Mass at a home on
Locust Street in Pittsford.
When the Diocese of Rochester was inaugurated in 1868, St. Louis Church was established as a mission of Fairport’s Church of the Assumption. Masses were celebrated in a rented hall above the Tousey Market on South Main and Church streets. In 1879, a small house on State Street in the village of Pittsford was purchased to serve as a more permanent home for St. Louis. Bishop Bernard McQuaid and Father John Codyre dedicated the cornerstone for a new church in 1884. St. Louis attained full parish status in 1911, and its rst pastor was Father Louis Edelman.
The parish’s growth prompted Father Edelman to consider the idea of a school for St. Louis. The
historic Hargous-Briggs house on South Main Street was purchased for the rst school. In 1950, St. Louis School opened its doors to more than 100 students. Five years later, a new school building was constructed for 300 students. Then-pastor Father John Reddington worked with architects to model the structure on schools in Italy that featured large piazzas where students would have an open view of nature. With the school completed, construction began on a new church, which was dedicated May 21, 1958.
After sponsoring a refugee family in 1998, the parish established Saint’s Place, a ministry that collects and delivers donated furniture and household items to refugees.
St. Louis School continues to serve students in preschool to grade 5.
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