THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH - 1912

BELLEVUE AND HERMITAGE AVENITES

The Blessed Sacrament parish, which was created in 1912, has experienced a marvellous development, owing largely to the sudden growth of Catholic population, following the general residential trend towards the West End. A valuable and well-located property at the corner of Bellevue and Hermitage Avenues, purchased 1911, embraces the rectory and a well-constructed three-story stone building combining church and school, with accom­modations also for the teaching sisters. The original church, which was of limited size and would soon have had to go anyway, was burned down a few years ago and the site which runs along Hermitage Avenue from Bellevue back to Rutherford, will before a great while accommodate a stately new edifice for divine worship, The Rev. Michael H. Callahan was the first pastor and was succeeded by the Rev. Martin F. Casey (1914), upon whose shoulders most of the building responsibilities have fallen. Father Casey is an indefatigable worker and under his care the parish has prospered spiritually and in its temporalities. He has added to the real estate holdings, which now run six hundred feet on Bellevue Avenue, three hundred feet on Rutherford Avenue, and two hundred and fifty feet on Hermitage Avenue.