ST. THERESA (1923)

Coal miners crowded into the Frederick Union Hall for the monthly Masses of Father Nicholas Seidl, OSB, pastor of St. John the Baptist's in Longmont. These well-attended services prompted Frederick residents to form St. Theresa parish in 1923. Doctor Paul L. Leyda donated two lots, and parishioners used socials, bazaars, local coal company contributions, and a $700 donation from the Catholic Extension Society of Chicago to build a church.

Catholics in the neighboring towns of Dacono and Firestone also pitched in to build a stucco Spanish-style church, with a graceful curvilinear parapet repeated in the doorway frame and the bell tower roof. After Raymond Layton, OSB, and his parishioners finished the $2,500 structure, Bishop Tihen dedicated it, on August 4, 1923, to St. Theresa of Lisieux. By 1938, the Frederick-Dacono-Firestone congregation had outgrown its small church, whose walls were cracking and crumbling under a sagging roof. On Easter Monday, parishioners gathered to tear down the old church and begin work on a new one. This brown and buff brick church was designed and built under the supervision of Father James Maher, OSB, the pastor of St. John's in Longmont who handled the Frederick mission. Inside, Colorado alabaster was used for the altar and candlesticks.

The Farmer and Miner, the tritown newspaper, issued a special souvenir edition on September 21, 1939, to celebrate the grand opening of St. Theresa's. Bishop Vehr and the visiting clergy were treated, after the dedication, to a dinner in the domestic science room of the Frederick High School, followed by a dance in the gym with "Joe Cook and his well-known orchestra of Longmont." Besides the $10,000 church seating 250, the parish built a new rectory and a parish hall, where catechism classes were taught by Franciscan sisters from Longmont. The many Italian parishioners sustained the parish during the depression years with spaghetti dinners that brought in as much as $300 a night. During the next depression--the 1980s slump--the parish cosponsored "Esperanza para Comunidad." Sister Mary Regis Leahy, a local girl who had joined the Sisters of Mercy, administered this program to build low-income housing.

John D. McCormick had blessed several houses by the time he left St. Theresa's in 1988. "The Sisters of Mercy fund the project with a revolving fund," Father McCormick explained, "and low-income families use their labor--sweat equity--as a down payment."