Parish History

St. Mary’s is the fifth-oldest parish in Queens and one of the oldest in the Greater Metropolitan area, going back to the days of the first beach resorts in the New York City area. The Marine Pavilion was the first grand bathing hotel established in Far Rockaway, at approximately Plainview Avenue between B. 19 and 20 Sts. in 1833. According to Sharp’s History of the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Rev. Michael Curran celebrated the first Catholic Mass in 1847 in a hotel owned by William Caffrey. By 1850 summer Masses were celebrated by the Rev. Edward John Maginnis (or McGinnis), pastor of St. Monica’s in Jamaica, in a tent for the burgeoning summer crowd. Thus, the history of Catholic life in Far Rockaway is older than the Diocese of Brooklyn itself, which was established only in 1853.

In January 1851 a plot of land was donated by Andrew Brady as a site for a new Catholic church, to be built by local men who contributed their labor and money. The cornerstone of the first church of St. Mary, Star of the Sea was laid on August 15, 1852. This building was located at approximately the site of the old Marine Pavilion, which in turn later became the location of St. Joseph’s (now St. John’s Episcopal) Hospital. The first Mass in the new church was in 1857 by the then-pastor of St. Monica’s, the Rev. Anthony Farley. This first church was located on ground adjoining St. Joseph’s convent on Central Avenue, and was reached from Broadway. It lay back from the road and worshippers climbed over a “stile” to get there. There are references to a parish schoolhouse adjacent to it as early as 1872, which may have been used for Sunday school and parish meetings. It may also have served as the original parish school building when the Sisters of St. Joseph came in 1877.

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An Interesting Sidelight

The Rev. John Murray Forbes, who preached on August 15, 1852 at the cornerstone-laying of St. Mary, Star of the Sea’s first church building (located on the site of now-St. John’s Episcopal Hospital) reflected an interesting phenomenon of 19th century inter-religious activity. In 1830 Forbes was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church, and in 1834 was named rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan. He was a noted intellectual, and was known as part of the so-called “American Oxford movement”, whose leader in England was the Anglican priest, John Henry Newman, who sought to restore to his church many of the sacramental practices of the Catholic Church. Forbes also was criticized for instituting “Catholic” practices in his Protestant parish. For example, in 1847 the first religious order for men in the entire Anglican Church since Henry VIII was born in Forbes’ parish: the “Society of the Holy Cross”. Newman and other English Tractarians, as they were known, began to enter the Catholic Church officially when they became convinced it was the true church founded by Christ.

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St. Gertrude's in Edgemere

In 1911, Edgemere was a fashionable summer resort. The immense Edgemere Club Hotel with its hundreds of rooms attracted guests from all over the world, as well as other hotels and many cottages. St. Gertrude’s was established as a mission church of St. Mary’s at first open only in the summer as a convenience for the burgeoning vacation population. Originally located on Edgemere Avenue and B. 35 St., it was built on stilts as a measure against the heavy flooding that was common in those days when drainage and bulk heading were primitive. In 1926 the church was moved to its present location on B. 38 St and Beach Channel Drive which was cut through that same year to provide a second east-west artery through the peninsula. Through all of Edgemere’s drastic economic and social changes, St. Gertrude’s has remained a bastion in the community serving its social and religious needs.

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