Saint George Roman Catholic Lithuanian Church - Building Construction

Building Construction

At the April 14, 1907, parish meeting the committee to oversee the construction of the church and parish hall was named. Their proposal to buy the vacant land between Hudson, Weeger, and Dudley Streets was readily accepted. Each person at the meeting pledged an initial 25 dollar donation. At the March 8, 1908, parish meeting $25,000 dollars were allocated to build a stone church. Although at first there were many stumbling blocks because of the hard financial situation of the time, Bishop Thomas Hickey dedicated the new church-hall-school building, costing about $18,000, on December 11, 1910.

The success of the building project was in most part due to the energy of Father Juozas Kasakaitis, who became the first pastor of St. George Church after finishing his studies at Saint Bernard's Seminary in spring 1910. In 1925 a two story rectory was finished. By January 1927, it became clear to all members that the parish was ready to build a church which would be separate from the hall and school. When Pastor Kasakaitis died in 1930, the new Pastor, Jonas Bakšys, took on the building project of the new church. Finally, on August 11, 1935, the new church, built to seat 400 members, was dedicated with great celebrations by Archbishop Edward Mooney and Bishop Teofilius Matulionis. The old church was converted to a parish hall and opened with a concert and play on November 17, 1935.