The Struggle for a New School

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The new pastor began work almost immediately on building a rectory and a new school. At the time, class was held in a room of the closed Cleveland Sandusky Brewing Co. across from the church.
Drawing of the school built 1916

In a letter to the bishop, this was described as a saloon, and students came home reeking of smoke from the leaking wood stove. After two years without cost, the parish was now being charged $13 a month rent. Obviously something needed to be done.

The parish had been setting money aside for a two-room frame school building. In a parish meeting on May 21, 1911, Fr. McMahon convinced parishioners of the need for a brick four-room school as well as a brick rectory. Once the decision was made, plans moved forward quite rapidly. A subscription of the parish was called for on June 11. The architectural plans were in the hands of the diocesan building commission by June 18 and a "brick-hauling bee" was announced the following week. A call for bids was made on July 2.

At a meeting of the parish councilmen on July 14, everything came to an abrupt halt. Pledges were not coming in as anticipated and the cost of the project was causing turmoil in the parish. Now the councilmen recommended a one-room frame school and a frame rectory.

Then, on July 24, Fr. McMahon suffered a severe stroke. Fr. Maurice Riley, who had been assigned to the parish as its first assistant in December, now assumed the administration of the parish. Fr. McMahon was taken to St. Vincent Charity Hospital (the closest one) and spent some time at Mt. Clemens, a health spa in Michigan. When he returned, Fr. McMahon administered the parish when he was up to it.

While plans for a new school building were on hold, arrangements still had to be made for the coming school year. One of the classrooms would be located in the church sacristy. The other was in a room donated by Miss Ellen Donovan in her newly opened Home of the Holy Family Orphanage (site of The Campus on Puritas Avenue). In September, Fr. McMahon arranged for the Sisters of Charity (Mother Seton's community) to be the teachers. They lived at St. Bridget's and took the streetcars to and from the school every day.

Also that September a loan for $6,000 was taken out and work moved forward on building the rectory. Fr. McMahon had to return to the hospital and Fr. Riley worked with the diocesan building commission on the plans. The commission insisted on the addition of two rooms on the third floor (making a total of 10), that the house be wired for electricity (the church would not be wired until October 1912), and that slate be used for the roof. The rectory was finished and the priests moved in during June 1912.

The changes to the rectory raised its cost and almost the entire loan was used to build it. This made the controversy surrounding the school all the more tense. The diocese, the pastor and the sisters all wanted a four-room brick building. Parishioners did not see where the money for this would come from and so wanted a smaller structure.

Classes continued to be held in the church sacristy and basement for the next two years - Miss Donovan needed the use of her room at the orphanage and could no longer offer it to the parish. A commercial course, added for the 1912-13 school year, was held in the rectory.

The school situation reached a crucial point in 1913 when the State Superintendent of Schools ruled that the church basement could only be used for classes if a permanent structure was under construction.

Efforts were made to raise the necessary funds. Neal Norton donated a lot from his real estate development which the parish raffled at the 1912 picnic. A pony and cart were also donated and raffled, but no substantial efforts were made to raise significant pledges from parishioners.

With increasing pressure to get something built, Fr. McMahon joined with his parishioners in trying to convince the diocese to approve a smaller building. Letters and plans went back and forth, the parish pleading and showing different possibilities. The diocese remained firm in its insistence on both building for the future and starting a building fund to avoid an oppressive debt. In June 1914 the diocese and the parish were still at an impasse.

The school year ended with the annual picnic at Puritas Springs Park. Classes did not resume the following fall. Without a new school, the sisters went on to other ministries and St. Patrick School closed for the next two years.

Fr. McMahon went on vacation in the spring of 1914 and Fr. Alexander Butler was given the temporary assignment of administering the parish. (Former associate pastor Fr. Riley had been assigned to St. Colman's in January 1913.) When Fr. McMahon returned, he asked for an assistant. The bishop replied that there was none to send and the parish could not afford one. He recommended that Fr. McMahon retire because of his health, and the priest submitted his resignation on March 2, 1915. Fr. McMahon died the following December of pneumonia while living at his sister's home in North Olmsted. He was buried from St. Bridget's where he had been pastor for 35 years.