The Early Years

The First Catholic Rites

The Catholics who had settled in Ridgefield within seventy years of the Revolution found a community that even then seemed an ideal place to establish roots and raise a family. Purchased from the Ramapoo Indians in 1708, Ridgefield was a peaceful, agricultural village. Its inhabitants shared a sense of togetherness and simplicity that in some respects still exists today.

 In April 1777, in its early days as a settlement, Ridgefield was called upon to defend itself against the British in the Battle of Ridgefield. It has been recorded that during this revolutionary period the first Catholic Mass was celebrated in Ridgebury on July 1, 1781. Mass was said n the main camp of the French troops under Comte de Rochambeau who stopped in this area on that date on his way to assist General Washington at Yorktown. The names of the French Chaplains were Father Robin, Gleeson, Lacy and St. Pierre.

 After the war, the newly-won American freedom eventually brought growth and prosperity to Ridgefield. Several manufacturing enterprises were established and blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, and coopers were included among the local tradesmen. It was during this period that the James Brophy family arrived in Ridgefield, settling here on November 30, 1848 and becoming the first Catholic family on record. Father Thomas Ryan was the first Catholic priest to visit Ridgefield since revolutionary times when he visited the Brophy home on West Lane while on his way from Norwalk to Danbury. Sadly, he found two Brophy relatives near death but administered the Last Rites and was able to be of some comfort to the family. Soon Father Michael O'Farrell of Danbury started saying Mass and hearing confessions at the Brophy home on weekends for the growing number of Catholics in the area. Among these early settlers were members of the Kelly, McGlynn, Murphy, Cahill, Whalen and Fitzgerald families.

 While the roots of a strong Catholic heritage in Ridgefield were slowly being established, the character of the town was changing. There was an air of elegance and beauty in the large summer homes being built for vacationing New Yorkers and Main Street, High Ridge, and East Ridge were magnificent with plantings of stately elms, sycamores and maples. Many of our Irish Catholic immigrants were hired to work on the new estates. The building of the Enfield Canal and other economic developments in the state attracted increasing numbers of Irish, many of whom settled in Ridgefield.

The First Catholic Church in Ridgefield

 
This early Catholic population had been attending Mass and receiving the Sacraments in the homes of different families until it became necessary to rent the Town Hall for five dollars a week for the celebration of Mass. The need for a permanent church became so great that in November 1867, James Enright and James Walsh, acting as agents for the congregation, purchased the Scofield property at the foot of Catoonah Street for $975. The small frame house on the land became the Church. Sadly, this was destroyed less than a year later when the candlestick factory on the adjoining property caught fire. With no insurance, it was Mass again in private homes and the town Hall for the next nine years.

 While the Catholic members of town were struggling to replace their church, the first train service to Ridgefield was started, and Phineas C. Loundsbury became Ridgefield's representative to the State Legislature, eventually becoming Governor of Connecticut. It is interesting to note that our lovely Community Center located on Main street was built by Phineas Loundsbury. It is a replica of the Connecticut State Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, which was held in Chicago in 1893 to commemorate the discovery of America.

The New and Larger Church

Locally, the Catholic community at this time was so determined to build a church of its own that a great sacrifice people contributed as much as fifty dollars each to a building fund. Enough money was finally collected to erect a church large enough to accommodate the entire congregation. It was built on the Catoonah Street property under the supervision of the Reverend Lawlor, rector of St. Peter's Church, Danbury. The growth of this Ridgefield Catholic community was such that the year 1881 brought a significant new honor: the small frame church was officially designated the parish church of St. Mary by Bishop McMahon. A regular schedule of Masses was begun--a tremendous blessing for the families who had sacrificed for years to maintain their children in the faith. 

 St. Mary's first pastor was the Reverend Thaddeus Walsh who had moved to Ridgefield from Georgetown in 1881, keeping Georgetown as a Mission. He would guide St. Mary's through its first years of growth--growth that was both substantial and continuous. Father Richard Shortell in his address on July 4, 1908 at the Bicentennial Celebration of the Town of Ridgefield described Father Walsh as "a kind, genial priest with a heart full of zeal and charity, knowing no reluctance where it was a question of duty; no fatigue when his flock called upon him for religious assistance." All of these qualities were exemplified in his trips over rough lanes and dirt roads to visit Mary Driscoll Regan, the wife of Jeremiah Regan, who was ill. So consoling to her were his visits that her last request was to be buried near him in the cemetery which was bought by St. Mary's in 1882. Her request was granted and the Regan plot in the old part of the cemetery is adjacent to that of Father Walsh's. His death on November 10, 1885 at the age of forty eight brought an untimely end to his years of dedicated service at St. Mary's.

 The Reverend Patrick Byrne succeeded Father Walsh, organized the enlargement of the church and cared for the congregation of both Ridgefield and Georgetown. He resigned in 1892 to be followed by the Reverend Joseph O'Keefe, a scholarly priest who was already an elderly man when he assumed those duties which proved to be beyond his physical strength. He resigned within the year, but it was his foresightedness in projecting the growth of the parish that prompted him to establish a fund to purchase land for a new church and rectory. Upon his departure, the parish was debt-free with $535 in the building fund.

 On May 30, 1894, Reverend Richard E. Shortell became St. Mary's fourth pastor and took up residence in Ridgefield. A truly remarkable man, this was the beginning of forty-one years of dedication and service to the people of Ridgefield and especially to the souls in his charge. Within four months of his arrival, land on the corner of High Ridge Avenue and Catoonah Street was purchased from Jacob M. Lockwood for $2750. In March of 1894, the rectory was constructed on the property. History tells us that the first telephone service same to Ridgefield in 1891, but it is doubtful that a telephone was installed in this new rectory, although it would have been most helpful to Father Shortell.

 Construction of the new church began in May 1896 and on July 4th the cornerstone was laid with Bishop Michael Tierney officiating. A sealed box was placed in the cornerstone containing a scroll with the names of parish, town and national officials, a copy of "The Ridgefield Press," a short history of the parish, a copy of the "Irish World," names of people who contributed to the erection of the church, and some cards of local businessmen.
 

The Architecture and Beauty of the New Church

 
Too few parishioners appreciate the architectural quality of St. Mary Parish, which was dedicated , debt-free on July 5, 1897. According to Madeleine Corbin, a local architectural historian, it is one of Ridgefield’s finest buildings and one of its most important examples of Victorian architecture. Victorian Architecture in America followed the English revival of interest in Gothic forms of the Medieval period, a time admired for its spirituality and romanticism. America redefined English Gothic Revival architecture around 1840, in terms of its own religious philosophy and love of the land. Quiet, somber earth tones were chosen for St. Mary’s Church by our Victorian architects because they held nature in reverence. They believed that a building should reflect the colors and materials of nature in order to be harmonious within the natural landscape.  

 Architecture to these early Victorians meant a great deal more it does today. In that age of idealism, a home was expected to be a refuge in harmony with God and nature; a place to refresh the spirit, commune with nature, uplift the mind and strengthen family ties. Small wonder then that St. Mary looks so serious. Just imagine how much more was expected of a church than a house!
 In terms of design, the church reflects four of the ten or more distinctive Victorian tastes of the period. Gothic design is responsible for St. Mary’s pointed or lancet windows, arches and cast iron finials. The square tower-steeple with its triple window, modeled after an Italian campanile or bell-tower, captures the Italianate flavor. Queen Anne style is reflected in the multiple use of highly-textured building materials, such as cobbles, bricks, brownstone, and shingles, and in the projecting overhang above the rose window. St. Mary’s most unique feature, its unusual steeple with its four turreted abutments and conical roof worked in shingles, is representative of the Shingle style. They quality and scale fo the shingling in the steeple is an outstanding and rare example of work in this style.
 The interior of the church reflects early, middle and late design trends of the period. The Gothic columns supporting Tudor arches, the marvelous vaulted ceiling, and the Gothic detail and tracery of the altar marbles reflects rre-1850 design. The rounded, gentle lines and the small scale of most of the statuary, probably executed in Bavaria, represent rococo tastes of the middle of the century, circa 1860. The angels behind the altar, for example, have the soft, sentimental faces of work of that period. The original blue, painted and stenciled walls, now painted white, were done in the Aesthetic style of the 1870’s, and the pews, in their rugged simple lines show the emergence of the Mission and Craftsman styles of the end of the 19^th Century.
  
 Of particular interest are the figural stained glass windows attributed to the Tiffany studios. Their design, though richer and more details that the other windows, is like them in restraint and symmetry. Compared to the richness of the marble carving and the original stenciled walls, they appear remarkable disciplined. The formality of the windows in the context of this Victorian church is surprising, considering the prevalence of swirling, natural forms in Tiffany work of the 1890’s. It demonstrates, in fact, the revival in America of the taste for the classic design of the 18^th century, which was to reach its height at the turn of the century.
  
 Tribute must be paid to the local craftsmen who worked on the church, including James Kennedy, in charge of masonry, Leander Boulduc, builder, Thomas White, painter, Dan and Peter McGlynn, tin workers, and especially to Joseph Jackson, the architect. His design successfully combined the divergent, stylistic elements of the Victorian period, providing us with a panoramic record of an earlier concept of beauty as valid as any we hold today. Such documentation is to be revered because it is visible evidence of the continuity of the Parish and those who went before.
 

READ MORE FROM THE ST. MARY CENTENNIAL BOOKLET 1881-1981
 (click on the photo album below titled, St. Mary Centennial)