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cHurcH of St. Jerome
The Church of St. Jerome was established to shorten the walking distance to Mass for local Catholics.
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Bernard J. McQuaid sympathized with a group of parishioners who had walked from East Rochester – then known as Despatch – to attend Mass in neighboring Pen eld. Forty families formed the original St. Jerome’s community in 1905, and Mass initially was celebrated in a hall on the third oor of a Commercial Street building owned by Adolphus Branchaud. Father Bernard J. Gefell was
appointed pastor of the new parish.
As the area grew, so did St. Jerome. The community conducted a drive to raise money to build a church and on Aug. 12, 1906, the cornerstone was laid by Bishop McQuaid at 207 Gar eld Street at the corner of West Commercial Street. The parish had grown so much that the church and rectory had to be enlarged by 1927.
Father Gefell died on February 9, 1950 following an illness of just one day, and Father Roy B. Morphy was appointed as the new pastor. That same year, a campaign to remodel the church was launched and more than $150,000 was pledged. When Father Morphy passed away suddenly in 1965,
Father Anthony Calimeri became pastor and served St. Jerome for almost 20 years.
In 1983, Bishop Matthew H. Clark invited the Precious Blood Fathers to
lead the parish, which they served until 1994.
St. Jerome underwent major renovations in 2014, which included removing the church’s main steps and creating a ground-level narthex, which made
the structure accessible to the handicapped.