St. Patrick's of Chateaugay celebrates 100th
Aug. 10—CHATEAUGAY — The parishioners of St. Patrick's Church in Chateaugay celebrate the centennial of the third iteration of the church this year through 2024.
"The cornerstone was laid in July of 1923, so we're kind of commemorating the anniversary throughout all of '23 and all of '24," Deacon Brian Dwyer said.
"The first public Mass for the church was Christmas Eve of 1924. We're going to be focusing more in the later fall going into 2024. Our main thing is we're hoping to have an anniversary Mass later in 2024,"
"Hopefully, the Bishop (Terry LaValley, Bishop of Ogdensburg) can come and celebrate that."
A display has been put up in the church's foyer, which shows the timeline of the building process and also some of the original documents associated with the construction.
A book, "The Building of St. Patrick's Church 1916-1936," by Rosemary Green, recounts the story of the congregation's determination to replace the church after the fire. All proceeds from the book are going to the Building Repair Fund. (See Box.)
THREE'S A CHARM
"This is actually the third church that there was," Green said.
"There were two churches on West Main Street prior to this. The first church was built in 1844. The priest was Father James Keveny. It was a mission of Malone for many years. This was the first church that they actually built here, but they still only served by the priests in Malone. There was not a resident priest until 1863."
WIND & FIRE
The first church of wood construction was destroyed by a tornado.
"Apparently, a tornado came through Chateaugay in 1856 and destroyed the church," she said.
"They rebuilt the church in 1859. It was a brick church. Both of those were located on West Main Street where our American Legion is. Then, that one was destroyed by fire. It got hit by lightning. They moved the church after that where it is. It was a nicer site. It was offered to them for sale. It was a very nice site and more centrally located. It burned in 1916."
The first two churches included parishioners from Ellenburg, Altona, Churubusco and Burke.
"People had to come to them," she said.
"Then gradually, they would go off and start their own parish. They didn't necessarily have a resident priest. I'm doing some research on Burke, but they've already closed. They decided we want to be on our own. But they still have a priest come for 31 years from somewhere else before they had their first resident priest."
AN INTERIM CHAPEL
Building was started in 1922 on the present building.
"It took them that long to get the money," Green said.
"Then, there was World War II and the Spanish flu that slowed them down. In 1914, the priest, Father Brice, said we need to build a bigger church. They had planned to build a bigger church before the fire. They started a building fund and they would put 5 cents a week in it which was a lot of money then. The architect was D.D. Kieff."
In 1922, the priest was Father John Jay Dean.
"He came in 1914, so he was there when the church burned and he helped raise the funds to build the new one," she said.
"They had Mass in the movie theater in the interim which was pretty much across from the church. It was there, then it moved to another building. Down from the four corners, there was a building there. It was a garage, and the owner offered them the second floor for like $30 a month to use for their church. It was better for them. They moved into this upstairs room, and they called it the St. Patrick's Chapel. From there, they went to the new church. It took over two years to build."
PRICE TAG
A Mr. Pennington was the superintendent, and the church was built by day laborers.
"Because they thought the contractors were too high," Green said.
Day laborer John Fericy laid the first stone on the foundation and the last stone on the tower.
"The estimate of the cost that was done in 1922, that could have fluctuated, I'm sure," she said.
"They had planned to do the church a different way, and the Bishop (John Henry Conroy, third Bishop of Ogdensburg) said no you're going to have to do it another way because it's too much. It's called a clerestory. It's a top part that has windows in it that lets light into the sanctuary. The Bishop said, 'No, you can't do it. It's too much for your parish.' On the estimate, it's $144,690. That's not pews altars, stained glass windows, all the embellishments."
FINELY MADE
St. Patrick's is built from Governeur rnor marble.
"There were marble quarries in Governeur, which surprised the heck out of me," Green said.
"I had no idea it was marble. I assumed it was granite, and a lot of other people did as well. It's kind of a gray, not dark gray, kind of a medium gray. The marble was supposed to cost $15,000. When you put it through 2023 inflation, it's $268,716. So it would be in the millions for all of this stuff to replace it, I'm sure. It was from the St. Lawrence quarry."
Pillars in front of the church are made from Onondaga Litholite from Syracuse.
"It's a combination of concrete and crushed marble that was cast into molds," Green said.
"I did find some invoices for those things. For the litholite, it was $11,078 in 1922. If you put it through the inflation calculator it's $198,000 today."
The church was built to seat 700 people.
"Supposedly, they had 1,600 members of the congregation at that time," she said.
'They were big families back then. They came from surrounding areas too because not every community had a church. Brainardsville was part of Chateaugay for quite a long time."
Green found a Chateaugay Record photograph depicting church and town officials turning over the first sod.
"The cornerstone was laid in 1923 by the Bishop," she said.
"The Bishop didn't come back until 1926, after the church was finished, for his first official duty. The windows went in 1933. There was plate glass there before. As far as the stained glass, there are very local names — English, Harrigan and Campbell, Ryan, Powers, and Dwyers. It's pretty much Irish Catholic.
"The community did a lot of fundraising for this. They had bazaars and chicken-pie suppers and rummage sales. I found two instances where a group got together and said, they're going to guarantee $100,000 to the church, and they all signed this promissory note. I did find one that had a lot of common names in this town McArdle, Curtain, and English."
The parishioners' fundraising efforts included "warm sugar socials."
"They all stepped up which was so impressive for me," she said.
"This was a big farming town at the time."
SKINNER ORGAN
The second-hand Skinner organ was purchased from the estate of Silas Barber of Plattsburgh.
"The organ was not put in until 1934," Green said.
"It cost $20,000, but they estimate it would cost $350,000 to replace it. It's not in working order. It needs some repairs. It's kind of hard to find somebody who has that knowledge anymore because it's a pipe organ. It has 2,400 pipes in it, from the size of a pencil to two-foot square pipes.
"Silas Barber had it built into his home. He played the organ, apparently."
Though St. Patrick's has been remodeled, there are still parts of the High Altar visible.
"It cost $5,500 at the time, which would be like $100,000 now," she said.
"There were two large angels that are still in the church. There was a beautiful carved scene of the Last Supper. It has been moved to the chapel. It's a beautiful piece."
The Knights of Columbus raised the money to purchase the pews. There were other memorial gifts that were given in memory of some of the windows and Holy Water fonts.
"The Nativity scene was given by the Altar Boys that raised money," Green said.
"The whole community raised money. In 1917, a gentleman in town wasn't a member of the Catholic Church. He was probably a member of the Presbyterian Church. He donated a four-year-old colt, a four-year-old horse, to be auctioned off on Town Meeting Day. Whatever it raised was to be divided between the Catholic Church and the Presbyterian Church for their organ fund. St. Patrick's got $332 out of it."
St. Patrick's statue was donated in 1929.
"In 1928, one of the members of the parish was ordained into the priesthood and that was big deal," she said.
"As a gift to the church, he donated the statue of St. Patrick which set in the central niche of the high altar."
From the church that burned, members were able to rescue the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"She still stands in the present church," she said.
"I don't know when she arrived in that church, but she's been around for over 100 years.
"The church footprint would be the shape of a cross in Romanesque design. The main building would be 130 ft. 11 inches long and 47 feet 10 inches wide until it made the arms of the cross. Then, it went to 69 feet 10 inches. The tower is 95 feet tall.
NO BELL
There was a bell in the church that burned.
"The story was when the church was hit by lightning and caught on fire, somebody went to ring the bell, and the rope came off in their hands because this lightning had struck the tower," Green said.
"The newspaper articles tells that the bell came down and then the walls fell. We have chimes, but they were put in in '40s. They could be heard from 8 miles away."
Green put out a notice in the community for a story share. One woman responded.
"My grandfather used to tell us that he went to New York City to bring back the window they had purchased in the memory of his parents," Green recounted.
"I did find a document that said this Mr. English had visited the stained glass studio and brought the window back on the train. I thought that was a cool little story. The marble came on the train. I'm sure it did. They don't have the equipment we do now to build that. It just amazes me. They must have sacrificed a great amount to donate what they did."
The Stations of the Cross were donated by the Hogan family in memory of their parents.
"The 14 Stations of the Cross, they cost $1,000 back in 1931," Green said.
"That was a lot of money for a family of I think three daughters that came up with this money to memorialize their parents. There's a plaque there to please pray for their souls. Given in memory of Mr. and Mrs. John Hogan by their daughters."
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
