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In 1904 Monsignor Bornemann arranged the purchase of a church building, that once belonged to St. Mark's Reformed congregation, at Schulykill Avenue and Green Street.
The Church was acquired for $6,000. Of this amount, the Italians had already paid $1,000, had assumed a mortgage indebtedness of $4,000 at 5 per cent., with the Penn'a Trust Company. Father Bornemann contributedd $1,000.
Considerable work was required in fitting up the edifice as a suitable place for Catholic worship. Numerous repairs were needed. New pews had to be installed, for those originally in the church were removed to St Mark's new edifice at Greenwich and Ritter. Altars had to be built, the outside painted, the interior walls frescoed and numerous other work done. The seating capacity of the church was 660.
The Church of the Holy Rosary was solemnly dedicated, Sunday, October 3, 1904.
The dedication ceremony was performed, by Monsignor Falconio, representative of the Pope In America. The presence of this high church dignitary in Reading aroused much enthusiasm, not only among the members of Holy Rosary church, but among Catholics generally in Reading.
A procession of clergymen and altar boys accompanied the Monsignor while he blessed the interior of the church and the surrounding grounds. Then followed a solemn high mass. It was celebrated by Rev. Father Bornemann. Father Paaonessa was deacon and Father Ganster sub-deacon. The choir of St. Paul's Catholic Church sang Gounod's Convent Mass, under the direction of Charles Hencke. The sermon was delivered by Father Caruzzo, of Phila. He spoke in Italian.
The population of the church increased and in a few years the immense number of children called the attention of their pastor to the necessity of a parochial school. In 1913, a former public school building at Third and Franklin Sts., was bought and renovated at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. The former public school was built in 1868 and closed
in 1908 as a public school. For a period it served as
the Reading Public Library.
In Nov, 1913, the Rt. Rev. Mgr. John Bonzano, of Washington, D. C., the apostolic delegate or personal representative of the Pope in America, dedicated with all due solemnity the new school building of the Holy Rosary Roman Church.
On Sunday, June 28, 1953, the present church, located at 3rd and Franklin Sts., was dedicated. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Luigi Ligutti of Des Moines, Iowa, executive director of the National Catholic Wellfare Conference, was the celebrant for the first Solemn High Mass to be held inside the new Holy Rosary Catholic Church. |
