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Saint Ann’s Catholic Parish |
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105 S. Snead St. Ashland, Virginia 23005 (804) 798-5039 |
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HISTORY OF ST. ANN’S PARISH
The Catholic Community in Ashland that is today St. Ann’s parish began to develop in the eighteen fifties just before the outbreak of the Civil War. There were just a few families forming a tiny community and there were no church facilities. Occasionally, priests on their way from Richmond to St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg via the RF & P railroad would stop and say Mass in the homes of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Scott or Mr. and Mrs. Louis Delarue. When priests were not scheduled to stop in Ashland the families would take the railroad into Richmond to attend Mass. The terminal in Richmond where they would disembark was convenient to historic St. Peter’s church By 1872 there were 40 Catholic souls in the town of Ashland. A small piece of land, 370 x 80 feet, with a school house on it was purchased by the diocese, Bishop Gibbons, for use as a temporary chapel. The chapel was located on the property of what is now 705 South Center Street which incorporates the old school house. The chapel was dedicated by Bishop Gibbons on April 15, 1873 and was named St. Augustine’s. The Bishop also took that occasion to confirm six candidates. Mass was said every other week thereafter by priests commuting from Richmond. The Catholic population of the town had reached 67 in 1892 when Captain Andrew Pizzini and his wife Ann of Richmond donated money for the construction of a new church The church was built at the northwest corner of Henry and England streets and was dedicated on July 31, 1892. It was named St. Ann’s in honor of the mother of the Virgin Mary. The dedication was conducted by the Vicar General of the diocese, the Very Reverend Joseph Frioli. After the ceremony the first Mass was said by the Reverend Father Wilson of St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg, the pastor. It is interesting to note that members of the early founding Scott and Delarue families took part in the affair. No drawing or photograph of the original church has yet surfaced. It is described as having plain white siding and being of the “old meeting house style.” Shortly after the dedication, a new gothic wooden altar was installed in the church. It was donated by the Bishop, Augustine Van De Vyver, and was built in Columbus Ohio at St. Joseph’s Orphanage. The orphanage had an industrial school that instructed the orphans in printing and carpentry. They built and sold all sorts of articles for churches By 1919 the church was in need of some repair and plans were made to do a refurbishment including a conversion to the Tudor Revival style which characterizes the building today. The cost of the renovation was defrayed by the congregation of St. Peter’s in Richmond. The effort was led by Fr. Walter J. Nott who was assigned to St. Ann’s at the time. The work was completed and the church was rededicated on May 25, 1925. At, that time there were about 80 people in the parish. In 1937 Bishop Ireton, seeing the growth of St. Ann’s to 168 members, contracted with a mission order from Massachusetts, the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to staff the parish. The Oblates provided a pastor and an assistant priest or a brother. The first resident priest at St. Ann’s was Fr. Clement I. Flynn of the Oblates. A house at 307 College Avenue was purchased for a rectory. The order remained at St. Ann’s for forty five years, leaving in 1981, during those years the membership of the parish more than tripled to 605 souls. In 1953 the 10 acre lot on South Snead St. where the church now stands was purchased by the parish for $13,000. Fr. Joseph Curtin, the Oblate pastor at the time, conducted efforts to raise money and obtain the land for a future new parish site due to the continuing and projected growth of the parish community. The ecumenical emphasis and liturgical changes of Vatican II came about in the mid 1960s when Fr. Pucci was pastor. The major changes such as celebrating the Mass in English while the priest faced the congregation were put in place smoothly during his time. His interest in the ecumenical movement led to St. Ann’s participation in several Christian community oriented religious initiatives. In the late 1960s parishioners in conjunction with members of other Christian communities and civil organizations founded the Ashland Christian Emergency Services (ACES). The organization helps area people in need with goods and services. This group has grown and is today a nonprofit organization with its own building and a wide network of volunteers from twenty-nine area churches, the county social agency, the fire department and the police and sheriff’s department. In the 1970s the parish addressed the long-standing limitations of the England Street building. The present day parish hall was built on the Snead Street property. The hall included spaces for parish offices and religious education classrooms. It was dedicated on 7 June 1975. Fr. Paul McCartin of the Oblates was pastor at that time. Within a few years the debt from the Center’s construction was retired with proceeds from various fund raising events. At about that time the Parish Advisory Council was formed and met with the pastor quarterly. The Council established committees, including worship, education and finance. Formal Sunday School with lay teachers was established in the hall during this time. Previously the parish had depended upon nuns from St. Gertrude’s or St. Joseph’s Villa in Richmond for religious education. By the mid 1970s, as the parish grew, the church on England Street became increasingly inadequate. A second Sunday Mass which was said at the parish center was added to the schedule. Still, the parish was too large and unwieldy. As a result, in 1975 the diocese established a new parish in Mechanicsville, the Church of the Redeemer. The Oblates left the parish in 1981 and the diocese appointed Fr. Brian Yanofchick as pastor, the first diocesan priest in over forty years. At about this time the old rectory on College Avenue was sold and the present day rectory on Thompson Street was purchased. Also during this period a number of parishioners along with other people in the Ashland community founded Hanover Habitat for Humanity. Within three years the first house was built and the organization has expanded ever since. Two additional institutions came to the parish in the 1980s. In 1981 a retreat house was opened in Montpelier, called Shalom House, on 90+ acres. Today it is much expanded and serves the entire diocese as a place for individual reflection, group retreats and educational programs. In 1987 the Sisters of the Visitation built a new convent in Rockville and the entire order relocated from its Church Hill site. In May of 1988 the church on England Street was sold to Randolph Macon College for $105,000. A portion of the money was put into a building fund for a new church. The rest of the funds were used to pay off a rectory debt to the Oblate Fathers and to convert the Center to a place of worship so that all Masses could be held there. The original 1892 altar was preserved and moved to a chapel at the parish center next to the hall. When Msgr. Sullivan was assigned to St. Ann’s in June of 1996 the parish efforts to define needs, plan, raise funds and build a new church accelerated. The capital fund raising drive was termed: A New Church for a New Century. By the winter of 1997 the parish instructions to an architect were completed. Robert Winthrop of Farmville was selected to design the church. In May a contractor, Gulf Seaboard of Ashland, was selected to build the church. The church was completed and the dedication took place on August 23, 2000. At that time there were 896 people in the parish. The 1892 altar had been moved into a chapel in the church and serves as the tabernacle for the Eucharist. In August 2003, three years after the dedication of the new church, the final installment on the building debt was made. In June 2005 Msgr. Sullivan was replaced by Fr. Chris Haydinger. Plans have been drawn up to complete the building project. Funds were raised to expand the existing parking area and construct a children’s playground. Construction was completed in 2007 and all debt incurred was defrayed by 2008. The parish has continued to grow rapidly and now comprises over 700 families.
August 2009
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