Most of the French settlement in Chelsea began as a result of the ethnic cleansing of the Acadian people that took place in Nova Scotia in the mid 1700's. See the article on "The Acadians" for more information. Additonal French speaking people began arriving in the latter part of the nineteenth century and, for the most part, settled in the Mill Hill section of the city.
In 1899, the French population began a movement to establish a French parish. The permission to create such a parish was sought from Archbishop Williams, late in 1906, followed by a petition with the names of one hundred thirty French families. The French families' request was granted on March 29, 1907, and was received with great joy by the French community. The pastor, Reverend Thomas Powers, of the St. Rose Church, gave permission for the use of the school basement until a church could be constructed. The new parish celebrated it's first mass in the St. Rose School hall on May 5, 1907.
The Marist Fathers, a French speaking order, assumed charge of the new mission, and in November 1907, purchased land on Broadway, between Cary Avenue and Parker Street. Immediately, planning began for the construction of a church.
The great fire of April 12, 1908, destroyed the St. Rose Church and school. Easter Sunday and the following three Sundays, mass was celebrated in the basement of the Horace Memorial Baptist Church, on Webster Avenue. Beginning in May, and for the rest of the year, services were held in the new quarters of the French Club on Clinton Street, the site of the Irish Club today.
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Work began on the new church in the late summer of 1908. The cornerstone was laid and blessed by Bishop John A. Brady September 18, 1908. By December the basement church was dedicated. The church was constructed at a cost of $9769.00 by contractor Phileas Bernard. Reverend Auguste Millet S.M. was named pastor and celebrated the first mass in the new church. Father Millet still resided in the Marist House in Boston, traveling by trolley to and from the church. In 1911, a house to the rear of the church at 55 Clark Avenue, was purchased for a rectory and the Sibley house at 49 Clark Avenue was purchased for a convent and a school. |
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Our Lady of The Assumption Church - 1908 |
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September 14, 1912, four teaching Nuns, of the Holy Union of the
Sacred Heart, arrived. Two days later the Nuns opened the doors of
the school to ninety-five students, in grades one through six. A barn
on the property was used as a temporary classroom for the second
grade. The first school graduation was held in 1915, in which five
students graduated. In 1919, the school had increased to 203 pupils
with six Nuns teaching. A new brick school with six classrooms, was
built, adjourning the church, and was ready for occupancy, in
September 1924. |
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After seventeen years as a basement church, a new upper church was completed and dedicated on November 29, 1925. Two Italian marble statues adorned the upper front of the church. One statue is Our Lady of the Assumption, while the other statue is Evangeline. The statue of Evangeline was a dedication to the Acadian ancestry of a majority of Our Lady of the Assumption parishioners. Through the determination, devotion and generosity of a small group of parishioners, a new church, school, rectory and convent were built, helping to contribute to the growing cultural diversity of Chelsea. Today, the school, convent and rectory are closed. The church continued to function for a short time under the ministry of the St. Rose Church. It has since been closed and the building sold. |
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Our Lady of The Assumption Church
- 1925 |
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