Written to commemorate 50 plus years in a confrontational, challenging and changing neighborhood:
    “The South Side exactly as had been in the older parts of Cleveland was blessed with its fervent and strong Catholic element.  As municipal boundaries had
    gradually moved further and further out, it soon followed that the problem of providing for the large Catholic population accredited to St. Patrick's (***Bridge
    Avenue in Ohio City,) but many blocks away from the church and school, must be met and solved.  The solution was the foundation of a parish under the
    patronage of St. Augustine.  The first provision for St. Augustine's was made by Bishop Rappe when in the year 1860 he authorized the purchase of a lot at
    the intersection of Tremont (**Webmaster's note:  There was no Tremont Street yet, this should read Wood Street.) and Jefferson and the immediate
    commencement of the construction of a frame church which was completed the same year."  The organization was considered a "mission" and "it was seven
    years before the Ordinary felt the people were sufficiently blessed with means and equipped with numbers to support a resident pastor. Assistants from the
    Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist attended to services and other spiritual need of the congregation.”

    Fathers A. Grandmougin, F. W. Higgins and J. P. Carroll:
    “The beginning of a resident pastorate was in the year 1867, when the Rev. A. Grandmougin was appointed by the Right Reverend Bishop. The constructive
    work of his brief stay was the erection of a brick pastoral residence at a cost of about $4,000, which was in use for a great many years by his successors.  
    That Father Grandmougin never thought of self was best proven by the manner of his death, which occurred in 1871.  Although the dread disease of smallpox
    threatened him with its infection, the brave priest never hesitated, but went wherever during the epidemic of that year,” (even when) “a stricken parishioner
    called for his spiritual ministrations. Worn out by Herculean exertions for many days, he was unable to rally and succumbed within a few days, literally having
    given his life for his people.”

    “Shortly before Christmas that same year Rev. F. W. Higgins was made the pastor, but in six months was forced to resign he charge, owing to the inroads
    which disease was making upon his health. The third pastor of St. Augustine's was the Rev. J. P. Carroll, who was nominated for the post in July, 1872 and
    who spent two years among the people.  Father Carroll was especially interested in the matter of the education of the Catholic children in the parochial
    school of the parish.  The original building for their accommodation had been secured by Father Grandmougin in 1868 and the growth of the number of
    students enrolled forced Father Carroll to devote a considerable part of his time and energy to enlarging and arranging conditions so as to make the school
    adequate for them."

    Fathers W. J. Gibbons, E. Mears and Michael J. Murphy:
    "Father Carroll accepted the Ravenna charge in 1874 and Rev. W. J. Gibbons was named his successor.  Within a year the peculiar misfortune which
    seemed to pursue the pastors of the parish overtook Father Gibbons and for his health's sake he was obliged to secure a leave of absence.  For the
    interregnum Rev. E. Mears was selected to carry on the work.  Father Mears remained a little more than a year and a half, then departed in the fore part of
    1877, when Father Gibbons, not yet entirely recovered, but anxious to be with his people, returned to resume his duties.  Within less than a twelve month after
    coming back to St. Augustine, Father Gibbons secured considerable improvements in the church property and also built a small chapel nearby which added
    greatly to the convenience and the serviceability of the plant, the dedication being by Bishop Gilmour on the 9th of December 1877.  Father Gibbons, never
    physically strong was again in the summer of 1879 compelled to sever his connection with the parish and this time permanently, his successor being the
    Rev. Michael J. Murphy.  Father Murphy began nine years of an active and energetic pastorate on the 8th of July in that year.  In 1886, Father Murphy, in order to
    prevent the parish site from being permanently cut off from any possibility of expansion, purchased a site of two lots additional on the east of the property,
    which gave the parish a long stretch of frontage on the street.  Father Murphy in his turn became the victim of failing health in 1888 and was relieved at his
    own request.”

    Father O'Connor:
    “He was followed by Father John O'Connor, whose name is still held in reverence by hundred of St. Augustine Catholics.  Father O'Connor saw soon after his
    entrance into the parish, that the then location was utterly unsuited to the location of his people and set about looking for a more desirable home for the
    church.”

    Purchase of New Church:
    “Ideally situated in his opinion and as subsequent events proved was a plot of ground on Jennings Avenue opposite beautiful Lincoln Park, on which there
    stood a Congregationalist conventicler (sic).  For several years, even after the incumbents of the edifice had moved further down the avenue to a new home
    which they had builded (sic), the efforts of Father O'Connor to secure this location were unavailing.  Frequent boasts were made by a class of people in the
    neighborhood who were tainted in virulent form with anti-Catholic bigotry that the site should never come into the possession of St. Augustine's parish and
    they were able to frustrate the plans of the pastor for nearly eight years.  The church was a substantial brick structure, requiring but a comparatively slight
    remodeling and its re-dedication to make it a thoroughly ideal Catholic church, and Father O'Connor labored diplomatically, as did his parishioners for a long
    while before they were able to so crystallize the situation as to make it apparent to the objectors that a Catholic parish would eventually be located in the
    vicinity and on Jennings avenue. "

    "Finally the site and church were purchased for the sum of $20,000.  Much of the necessary interior furniture was secured with the edifice, such as pews, a
    pipe organ, spire and bell.  On Sunday, April 26, 1896, the new Catholic church was formally dedicated by the Rt. Rev. I. F. Horstmann, D.D., then Bishop of
    the diocese. The altars, statuary, Stations of the Cross and stained glass windows were donated at the time, so that Father O'Connor entered at once into the
    possession of a fine edifice without the wear and tear of building a plant.  For ten years Father O'Connor lived in the old pastoral residence some four or five
    blocks away, enduring this inconvenience because the financial obligations which the parish had assumed were all that in his opinion they should
    undertake.  The school and the other property of the parish were also separated from the church proper.”

    Pastoral residence:
    “Scores of the members of his congregation, insisted that the house of the pastor should be located nearer the church and in 1906 and after much the same
    sort of opposition which had been met with in securing the site for the church, the lots directly across Howard from the church were purchased and a
    handsome priest's house was erected on it.  When Father O'Connor left the old home, it was turned over to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who were in charge of
    the instruction of the children in the schools.  Father O'Connor did not live long after moving into the new house on Jennings avenue, death calling him in
    December 1906.  His loss was a great blow to the parish, which had come to associate the church and Father O'Connor as inseparable graces to them.  
    Rev. Raymond Mylott, then pastor of the parish of Our Lady of the Annunciation, was assigned to the church, his pastorate commencing in the month of
    February 1907.”

    School and Club House, Father Raymond Mylott:
    (See Elementary Schools)

    Remodeling of Church:
    “Although with its purchase by Father O'Connor, the church was remodeled so as to be usable for the purposes of Catholic worship, it had never been so
    reconstructed as to be ideally planned for the multifarious needs of service.  In June 1908, Father Mylott undertook the practical reconstruction of the interior,
    so that the present St. Augustine's is by far the most convenient the parish has ever possessed.  New altars were installed and the rear of the church so
    remodeled as to permit of the construction of a sanctuary of proper dimensions and shape.  The old side aisles were added to by the establishment of a
    middle aisle; electric lighting was installed, the entire interior frescoed, the whole improvement representing an outlay of about $5,000.”

    Home for the Sisters:
    “The needs of the faithful Sisters of St. Joseph have not been overlooked during Father Mylott's five years' pastorate, for shortly after the completion of the new
    school and club house, Father Mylott secured the funds requisite for the purchase of a home for them, on Jennings avenue.  The old property was finally
    disposed of entire a couple of years ago.”

    Fine Influence of the Parish:
    “Though St. Augustine's has no special historical fact which links it to some conspicuous achievement or some international condition, it has what is equally
    notable. . . .  One of the most splendid works which is wrought by any parish is the silent pervasive testimony which the people thereof bear to the non-
    Catholic neighbors with whom they come in contact.  And the ebullient, vigorous Catholicity of St. Augustine's is doing its part nobly toward the conversion of
    its surroundings.”  
    ***********
    The 100th Anniversary of St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church:
    In 1960, Auxiliary Bishop Floyd L. Begin offered a solemn Mass of Anniversary for the parish.  The pastor, Father William J. Walsh, had invited all former
    parishioners to return for the celebration.  The church now had 400 families and a dwindling school enrollment of 260.  Eight rooms are used; a ninth was
    closed last year.  The parish's newest building was put up in 1907, so there's no debt.  Never one of the city's larger parishes, St. Augustine was being
    shrunk by progress and the need for more direct transportation from downtown to out-lying areas.   Some houses in the parish were lost to the Inner Belt
    Bridge.  The Clark Freeway would take more.  West 14th, once the area’s own "Main St." (it was called Jennings Ave.) had long since become a corridor for
    through traffic."  St. Augustine was on the western edge of the city's Tremont Rehabilitation and Conservation Project.  A field office was set up to work with
    residents in rehabilitating and dressing up the area.

    Father Walsh, pastor since 1937, had spent all but six months of his priestly life at St. Augustine.  He was ordained March 28, 1925, and was appointed
    assistant at St. Augustine Sept. 30, of the same year.  He was made administrator in September 1936 and pastor the following June 1.  The Sisters of St.
    Joseph still taught in the school.  They were guests at a dinner after Mass, along with former teachers, sons of the parish who went into the priesthood and
    those who served at the parish.

    Father John Fleming, pastor of St. William, preached at St. Augustine's anniversary Mass.  Father John Dalton, assistant at St. Barnabas, was deacon, and
    Father Kenneth Retter, assistant at St. Vincent, Akron, subdeacon.  Deacons of honor were Father Edward Murphy, pastor of Epiphany, and Father Edward
    Dickard, pastor of Holy Trinity.  Father Fleming and Dalton are sons of the parish, the others former assistants.

    In 1966, the Rev. John F. Wilson was the pastor and he was assisted by Rev. N. Hanibal.
    *************
    The 100th Anniversary of St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church on West 14th Street:
    St. Augustine Catholic Church parishioners marked a century of serving God and people in their church building in 1996, sharing the celebration with
    spiritual descendants of Christians who first worshiped there.

    "We celebrate the heritage of those who have been faithful to the Gospel and who will continue to be faithful to God," the Rev. Joseph D. McNulty, the pastor of
    St. Augustine, told the congregation of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ during a worship service. The two congregations have shared a
    spiritual heritage for nearly 150 years in the Tremont neighborhood. St. Augustine is at 2486 W. 14th St. and Pilgrim a few doors south at 2592 West 14th St.

    But their relationship goes deeper than being neighbors. The building in which St. Augustine worships was built by the members of Jennings Road
    Congregational Church around 1870, then taking its name from the street that later became W. 14th St. The members of Jennings Road church trace their
    heritage to New England Congregationalists.

    St. Augustine, a parish attended by mostly poor Irish immigrants when it was founded in 1860, met in a smaller wooden structure at Tremont (***an error)  
    and Jefferson streets in an area of what was then called University Heights, later to become the South Side then Tremont.   The Jennings Road Church, with
    nearly 1,000 members, decided in about 1890 to build a new church building to better serve the needs of the people, especially the poor.

    After the Jennings Road congregation, which later changed its name to Pilgrim, moved to its new home, St. Augustine, also in need of a bigger building to
    meet the needs of its growing community was eventually allowed to buy the old building.

    In September 1996, to celebrate the 100 years of St. Augustine's ministry in the former Congregational church, many members of the two parishes attended
    each other's services to pray and sing together and to renew commitments to serve the people of the neighborhood.

    McNulty preached in Pilgrim's service, and the Rev. Laurinda Hafner, Pilgrim's pastor, gave the homily during Mass at St. Augustine, illustrating a unity
    between the two churches that both pastors extolled.  McNulty said the two parishes had established a unity in their ministries, amid diversity, serving the
    poor and the hungry, and children and older people.  

    St. Augustine is the center of the Catholic ministry to the deaf and hard-of-hearing and offers special services to the blind and to those suffering from mental
    illness. Both services were signed for deaf and hard-of-hearing people yesterday.  Pilgrim, which cooperates in all these ministries, is known for its
    openness. Its bulletin yesterday described the church as "a just peace and open and affirming congregation."


    Sources:
    Lyon, Alfred H., writing for the Diocese of Cleveland, Catholic Universe, Vol. 38, No. 34. February 16, 1912.
    Unknown, about 1960.
    "Spiritual Heritage of Tremont Community", May 22-29, 1966.
    See Susan Mandzak in Dedication.
    Cleveland Plain Dealer article by Darrell Holland, September 30, 1996.
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Cleveland's Southside
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