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St. micHael’S cHurcH
Historians believe priests from Palmyra and Lyons traveled to Newark by horse and buggy to celebrate Masses in the homes of the village’s Catholics until the mid-1800s.
In 1855, however, St. Michael’s Church was established as a mission of St. Michael Church in Lyons (now part of St. Joseph the Worker Parish), and Newark’s 40 Catholics nally had
their own church home.
For several decades, St. Michael’s parishioners gathered for Masses in a small structure on East Miller Street. By 1876 the parish had grown to include 120 parishioners, and kept growing. Recognizing the need for a larger church, in 1897 the St. Michael’s community purchased a plot of land at 401 S. Main St. for $3,500.
The cornerstone of the new church building was laid in 1902, and the completed building – a neo-Gothic
structure built of Medina stone – was dedicated by Bishop Bernard J. McQuaid in March 1903. That year, Father James Gibbons became the parish’s rst resident pastor, and St. Michael’s became a parish in its own right.
Irish and Italian immigrants soon began arriving in Newark to work on the Barge Canal, and work to enlarge the church began in 1912. By 1960, approximately 2,000 people were attending the parish’s Sunday Masses, and the St. Michael’s continued to grow. The church was renovated in 1988 to accommodate liturgical changes and improve accessibility to disabled parishioners.
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