Page 231 - ROCHESTER

St. mary’S cHurcH
One of the rst acts of Bishop Bernard J. McQuaid,
rst bishop of the new Diocese of Rochester, was to announce the division of Auburn’s Holy Family Parish to create a new Auburn parish.
The resulting St. Mary’s Parish was organized on Aug. 15, 1868, the feast of the
Blessed Virgin Mary’s Assumption into heaven.
Father Thomas Maher, the parish’s founding pastor, celebrated St. Mary’s earliest Masses in a series of homes and public buildings until October 1868, when he built a temporary wooden structure that was known as the “Shanty Church.” Parishioners worshipped in this humble structure while their permanent church was constructed at 15 Clark Street. The cornerstone was laid in 1870, and the Gothic structure, built of gray limestone and renowned at the time for its “imposing grandeur,” was dedicated by Bishop McQuaid in 1877.
Eleven years later, the parish imported new Stations of the Cross from Munich, Germany, and added a mural featuring the four evangelists and paintings of St. Mary and the Holy Family. In 1890, a new organ manufactured by the Carl Barckhoff Company was installed in the church, and remains in use today. Bells were purchased and installed in St. Mary’s bell tower in 1926.
The church underwent renovations in the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s. The parish also formed a Cultural Arts Committee, which has enabled the community to host cultural events and concerts by organists, orchestras and choirs.
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