St. Mary's Church

About this property

St. Mary of Ostrabrama is a historic Polish Roman Catholic church at the junction of Jackson Street and Whitehead Avenue in South River, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It was built in 1904 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2003. During the late 1800s, there was a large influx of Polish immigrants in the South River/Sayreville area – the men found work in the brickyards and the women as needle operators in the factories on Whitehead Avenue. They worshiped at the only Catholic Church in the area at that time, was Our Lady of Victories in Sayreville. However, the community wanted to build a church where they could worship God in their native tongue, provide schooling for their children and carry on the traditions of their ancestors. An appeal was first made to the Bishop of Trenton by representatives of 252 families with 445 children in 1897. But this initial appeal was rejected. The community worked diligently through many years of negotiations with the Bishop. Finally, on November 2, 1902. Bishop McFaul approved the petition to establish a new parish and Our Lady of Ostrabrama was born. In December 1902, the Bishop assigned Father Joseph Regorowicz to be the founding pastor of St. Mary's. The first mass of the new parish was celebrated in the Bohi factory on Water Street on December 16, 1902. In the spring of 1903, the permanent site of the new church, the corner of Jackson Street and Whitehead Avenue was approved. The land was purchased for the sum of $2100. Construction of the new church began a few months later. Even after working long hours, the men of the parish came out with shovels and pickaxes to help with the excavation for the church foundation. In a little less than a year, a roof covered the basement and mass was now celebrated in the church. Additionally, the parish acquired a six-acre plot in April 1905 to serve as the parish cemetery. Father John Supenski was the second pastor of St. Mary's. His principal task was to complete the church building which up until this point had only been at the basement level. The projected cost was $4500 plus $3000 for the stained glass windows. Bishop McFaul blessed the church on October 11, 1908. The third pastor was Father John Pawlowski. During his administration, St. Mary's began its parochial school sessions conducted by the Felician sisters in four classrooms in the basement of the church. The white main altar was also installed during this time. Under the fourth pastor, Father Francis Czarnecki, the church purchased its first organ. Until that time, accordions provided the music for worship and devotion. In September 1919, five lots were purchased on the corner of Jackson Street and Holmes Avenue to be used for a new school. Father John Budzink became the fifth pastor. He began construction on the new school on June 17, 1927.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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