Catholic – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church (1840)

by Dan/February 9, 2020February 9, 2020/Churches, Concord, Italianate

The St. Bernard’s Catholic Church at 12 Monument Square in Concord was originally erected in 1840 or 1842 by the First Universalist Society in Concord. The small congregation encountered financial difficulties and ended its services in the early 1850s. The church stood empty until the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston purchased it in December 1863. Since the early 1850s, Concord’s growing Irish Catholic community had been a mission of St. Mary’s Parish in Waltham. Now the parish had its own church, St. Bernard’s, which became an independent parish in 1867. At the time, the church was still in its original location, separated from the common by the “old green store.” In 1870, the parish purchased the store in order to move the church forward towards the common. The church was also turned ninety degrees to face southwest toward the foot of Main Street and enlarged with a basement and extended to the rear to accommodate a new vestibule and sanctuary.

Renovations in 1889, designed in the Italianate style by local architect John Chapman, added a steeple and again enlarged the church. Changes were made to the front facade and new front stairs were added in 1959-1960, but another major renovation in 1996-1997 restored the church as much as possible to its late nineteenth-century appearance.

Our Lady Help of Christians Church was built in the industrial area of West Concord in 1904 and became a separate parish in 1908. The two Concord parishes merged in 2004 to form Holy Family Parish, based at St. Bernard’s Church. More recently, Holy Family Parish and St. Irene’s Church in Carlisle joined to form a new parish collaborative.

St. Peter Catholic Church, Great Barrington (1911)

by Dan/January 19, 2020January 19, 2020/Churches, Gothic, Great Barrington

St. Peter Catholic Church is located at 213 Main Street in Great Barrington. An earlier St. Peter’s was erected in 1854 at the corner of Cottage and Russell Streets. Construction began on the current church in 1904, using marble quarried in Egremont. The church was dedicated in 1911.

Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Pittsfield (1866)

by Dan/September 14, 2016September 14, 2016/Churches, Gothic, Pittsfield

The building of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, located at 376 North Street in Pittsfield, was begun in 1864 and the church was consecrated in 1866. It replaced an earlier church, built on what is now Melville Street in 1844. The 1866 North Street church‘s architect was P. C. Keely and the builder was Patrick Treanor of Boston.

St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church, Holyoke (1858)

by Dan/March 13, 2016March 13, 2016/Churches, Gothic, Holyoke, Second Empire

St. Jerome’s Roman Catholic Church was the city of Holyoke’s first Catholic church. Holyoke Catholics were first organized in 1856 and the church, located at 181 Hampden Street, was built in 1858-1860. The church was designed by prominent church architect Patrick Keely. A fire in 1934 destroyed everything but the church’s brick walls. The building was rebuilt to plans by John W. Donahue of Springfield. A chapel was added to the rear of the church, plans starting in 1939. Continue reading “St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church, Holyoke (1858)”

St. Joseph’s Church, Stockbridge (1862)

by Dan/January 10, 2016January 10, 2016/Churches, Gothic, Stockbridge

St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, at 11 Elm Street in Stockbridge, was built 1860-1862. It became a parish church in 1922. The interior of the church was renovated in 1948 with a new ceiling and altered nave and sanctuary.

Mater Dolorosa Roman Catholic Church (1901)

by Dan/May 21, 2015January 23, 2020/Churches, Gothic, Holyoke

Mater Dolorosa Parish in Holyoke was established in 1896 as a Polish Roman Catholic parish. Worship took place in the basement of Our Lady of the Rosary Church until Mater Dolorosa Church, at 173 Lyman Street, was dedicated in 1901. Mater Dolorosa Catholic School opened a decade later. The church was closed in 2011 when Mater Dolorosa parish was merged with Holy Cross to form the new Our Lady of the Cross parish. This occurred came following a ruling from the Vatican after five years of appeals and court actions to prevent the closing. Next came controversy between the Catholic Diocese of Springfield and those who want to establish a Polish historic district on Lyman Street that would include the deconsecrated Mater Dolorosa Church. The proposed historic district was rejected by the City Council, but efforts to save the building continue. UPDATE: The church was demolished in December, 2018.

Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Roman Catholic Church, Adams (1887)

by Dan/August 11, 2013/Adams, Churches, Romanesque Revival

In vol. II of The History of the Catholic Church in the New England States (1899), Rev. John J. McCoy relates the origins of Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs parish:

Just one year beyond a quarter of a century need we go to find the French-Canadian people of Adams assisting for the first time at Mass in a body by themselves. Then, January 4, 1872, Father Charles Crevier, the pastor of the Sacred Heart church at North Adams, gathered them into a hall on the third story of a building in the town, and said Mass for them and preached to them in their native tongue. Five years later, on Park street, upon land which he had already purchased for $2500, he built a frame chapel at a cost of $5000. The original yet serves the people as a school for the parish children. In September, 1882, Bishop O’Reilly made the Rev. John Baptist Charbonneau, then a curate of Father Crevier, the first resident pastor of the Canadians of Adams.

The parish acquired additional property at 21 Maple Street for $15,000 and

Father Charbonneau, in 1887, hardly five years from the time of his appointment, laid the foundation of the spacious and beautiful church which is the pride of the Canadian people today. Bishop O’Reilly is reported as having called the church of the Sept. Douleurs one of the most beautiful in his diocese. It is of Romanesque architecture, 150 feet long by 70 feet wide, and has seating capacity for 1500 people.

In 1998, Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Roman Catholic Church and St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church in Adams formed a joint parish. In 2008, the two parishes merged to form Pope John Paul the Great Parish, now called Blessed John Paul Parish.