With $5,000 in his pocket to purchase property and to begin a new parish that was on the very fringe of the city, which was in many respects largely uncivilized, the 41-year-old Rev. Edward Smith, C.M., could think of few reasons for joy. He had no home and no church, save in his imagination. For almost an entire year, his church would be the small chapel of the Daughters of Charity a quarter of a mile away in St. Joseph’s Hospital. But he had good will, boundless enthusiasm, endless zeal, the luck of the Irish, and most important of all, 75 parishioners who knew as well as he the meaning of poverty.

Laboring together, Rev. Smith and his dedicated parishioners commissioned the construction of a small brick combination building on the corner of Webster and Osgood. On Christmas Day of 1875, Rev. Smith and his first parishioners were able to celebrate the first Mass in the as yet uncompleted building. There was no roof over their heads to cover them from winter’s storms and only a temporary floor beneath their freezing feet to stem the bitterness of the cold. The building had little to recommend it either artistically or architecturally. When it was dedicated on April 30, 1876, one of the local papers asked sneeringly, “What is it?” A good question, Rev. Smith himself would undoubtedly have said.

The building was everything. It was the parish church, the pastor’s home, the parochial school, and the parish hall. And it was to remain everything except parochial school until Rev. Smith’s second stint as pastor. For early in 1891, Rev. Felix Guedry, the third successor of Rev. Smith, established the first St. Vincent’s School.

After Rev. Smith returned from New Orleans in 1891, where he had served as a chaplain and pastor, he saw a city that had mushroomed almost miraculously overnight. His little church and combination parochial residence was woefully inadequate. Expansion was impossible; a new church was an absolute necessity. Perhaps the taunting words of 1876 induced him to plan the splendid structure that would be the best that human ingenuity and artistry could devise.

The result was the magnificent (even by today’s standards) church that graces the corner of Webster and Sheffield. When it was dedicated on May 1, 1897, there were few churches that could rival it in grace or architecture. Unfortunately, Rev. Smith never lived to officiate in the church that he had planned with loving care. He died before the church could be dedicated, and his was the first funeral to be held in the beautiful sanctuary to which he had given his life.

Tribute Bricks

To Purchase:

Online Order Form