Dorchester Illustration 2531 St. William’s Church
Reminder: a house history from the Dorchester Historical Society would make a great gift to a homeowner in Dorchester or Mattapan. Take a look at some of the completed histories on the Dorchester Historical Society website www.dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org
St. William’s Church
St. William’s became a Parish set off from St. Peter’s in 1909, consisting of territory south of St. Margaret’s Parish nearly to Glover’s Corner, and including the Savin Hill district. The Reverend James J. Baxter was the first pastor and was succeeded by James McCarthy. Baxter bought part of the Worthington estate at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Belfort Street, and the old mansion was adapted as a rectory. The Worthington property extended along Dorchester Avenue from Belfort Street to Elton Street.
The building built for St. William’s was designed by Edward Sheehan, a Dorchester resident, in the Spanish Mission style, an unusual design in Dorchester. The building was located at 1048 Dorchester Avenue between Belfort Street and the newly-created St. William Street.
The building was destroyed by fire in September 1980 and was later replaced with a church of modern design, the Waymark Seventh-day Adventist Church.
From the 1990s through 2004 the Archdiocese of Boston endured the consequences of allegations and lawsuits involving misconduct by priests with the result that the Archdiocese paid out large monetary settlements. The Archdiocese studied its parishes and determined that low attendance and large expenses warranted the closing of some. St. William and St. Margaret were the only two parishes, out of 11 Catholic parishes in Dorchester, that felt a direct impact of the Archdiocese’ reconfiguration process of early 2004. On August 31, 2004, St. William’s joined St.Margaret’s to become the Blessed Mother Teresa parish, occupying the St. Margaret’s building at 800 Columbia Road. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized on Sunday, September 4, 2016, and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta parish in Dorchester changed its name to St. Teresa of Calcutta Church.
For more information, consult:
Emery, S.L. A Catholic Stronghold and Its Making. A History of St. Peter’s Parish, Dorchester, Massachusetts, and of Its First Rector the Rev. Peter Ronan, P.R. (Boston, 1910)
Lord, Robert H., John E. Sexton and Edward T. Harrington. History of the Archdiocese of Boston. (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1944) 3 vols.
Shand Tucci, Douglass. The Gothic Churches of Dorchester. (Issued by the Dorchester Savings Bank. Boston: Tribune Publishing Company, 1972)