ROMAN CATHOLIC

ST CYRIL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

With the kind cooperation of the Town of Alexandria historian, Greta Slate.

St. Cyril's Catholic Church with its house of worship situated on Crossmon Street during the early years of the century, realized the need of a larger edifice soon after the arrival in 1908 of Rev. M.E. Fogarty. The purchase of property on Walton Street was made with excavation started in 1919. Due to the intervention of World War I, in which Rev. Fogarty participated as chaplain, construction was interrupted to be resumed and completed in 1922. Constructed of local granite with a beautiful alter of Italian white marble, the structure commands an arresting position on a high level. Rev. M.E. Fogarty, who was later elevated to Rt. Rev. Monsignor, as pastor of St. Patrick's Church of Watertown, was held in high esteem by the entire community of Alexandria Bay, which he served over twenty years.

In 1941 announcement was made that the heirs of Gilbert T. Rafferty, Pitsburg, had given their summer home and property, known as Bonnie Castle, to St. Cyril's church, Alexandria Bay. The following year the property was acquired by the White Fathers of Africa, a Catholic missionary group, which opened it as a novitiate and seminary. They continued training their student body for the work in the mission field, until feeling the need for larger quarters, the Alexandria Bay group was removed to Pennsylvania in 1957, leaving the local property unoccupied.

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Nan Dixon

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