Woodhaven Parish Turns One Hundred

St. Thomas The Apostle, Woodhaven, N.Y. —

On April 1, 1908 property was bought for $8400 by Rev. Andrew Klarmann, rector of St. Elizabeth’s Church, Woodhaven. Ground for a church was broken on October 5, 1908, and the cornerstone was laid by Bishop McDonnell. The church was dedicated on April 18, 1909, by Mgr. George Kaupert, V.G. It cost $1400, and is a frame structure designed to serve later as a parish hall. The seating capacity is 500 in the body of the church and 100 in the organ gallery. The entire church property is valued at $40,000, and is free of debt. St. Thomas’ was an out-mission of St. Elizabeth’s for one year, but on July 1, 1910, it was separated from the ecclesia matrix, and Father Klarmann, a native of Germany, was appointed its first rector. A brick house near the church was purchased for a rectory. The limits of the new parish were defined as: east, to the L.I.R.R. trestle and embankment; west, to the City Line; south, to Fulton Street continued into Union Course as far as 7th Street; north, to Forest Park. Within the parish is a hospital in charge of and erected by the Sisters of St. Francis from St. Peter’s Hospital, Brooklyn. It accommodates several hundred patients, cost far above $500,000, and its site covers 600 by 200 feet of ground. St. Thomas’ congregation numbers 2700 members, and is steadily increasing, largely by immigration from the over-populated districts of Brooklyn and New York, partly also by a process of revival inaugurated and sustained by the good example and efforts of the Holy Name Society of the parish. There are barely thirty native families in the parish, the remaining being made up of such families as have already attained maturity, and of such as have only made their start, those in the stage of expansion being very few. Hence the larger number of young couples with more or but one child, and the comparative scarcity of baptisms and marriages. The older families have been transplanted from their old homes down town, and the younger are just settling after contracting marriage in their old home churches. Of the benefactors of the parish Mrs. Mary Dannenhoffer and her brother, Louis Eschenbrenner, deserve special mention as they most liberally came to the aid of the pastor in the days of his need. The records for 1913 show 19 marriages; 109 baptisms, 7 being converts; and 23,100 communions. At the last administration of confirmation 207 candidates were presented, and in the latest celebration of First Communion 205 children participated. The attendance at Sunday Masses became so large that on February 1, 1914, a fifth Mass was added. Rev. George D. Sherman, the assistant pastor, is a native of St. Barbara’s parish. Brooklyn. The societies established are: Holy Name (175 members); Altar (130); Children of Mary, which consists of three distinct branches for the various ages of the young people belonging to it (total membership, 600); and the League of the Sacred Heart (1500). The pastor and parishioners are making strenuous preparations for the erection of a school, rectory and convent. Plans are already made and another year may suffice to see their hopes a reality.

The Catholic Church in the United States (1914)