The feast of St. Joseph the Worker had been established a short time before by
Pope Pius XII, on July 1, 1955, to Christianize Labor Day and our Parish was the
first in the United Sates, possibly in the world, to be named for the foster
father of Jesus under title of “The Worker”.
Fr. Greene's first rectory was a private home located on Jumilla Ave. where and
an altar was installed for daily Mass. For Sunday Mass, Fr. Greene contracted
with the Board of Education to use the Auditorium at nearby John A. Sutter
Middle School in Canoga Park, where the first Sunday mass was celebrated on July
1, 1956, only two months after the establishment of the parish. For the Holy
Days, the Lorenzen family gave the new parish free use of their Mortuary chapel.
Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals were still conducted in one or the other of the
two neighboring parishes, although they were all recorded at St. Joseph the
Worker.
March 10, 1957 saw the groundbreaking of the temporary Church, which later
became the parish hall. On December 15, a day of torrential rains, Fr. Greene
and his people celebrated Mass in their new Church.
Meanwhile eight classrooms, half the eventual size of the school, were
constructed and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who had agreed to staff
the school, arrived on September 21, 1957. The first group of 360 first to third
grade students entered the school on February 3, 1958.
After two temporary residences, a permanent rectory was completed in April 1958.
Later the same year a new parish, Our Lady of Lourdes, was established in
Northridge and the northern boundary of the parish was moved south to Parthenia
Street.
In the spring of 1959, construction of the second half of the school began and
was finished in short order in January 1960. On April 30, 1961 His Eminence
James Frances Cardinal McIntyre presided at a Solemn High Mass of dedication of
the Parish he had established only a few years before.
The next building project was a Convent for the Sisters a structure that was
completed in April 1964.
As the Parish continued to grow so grew the need for larger and permanent
Church. In October 1966, the ground was broken and construction began. The new
Church was dedicated on August 11, 1968 by Cardinal McIntyre. |
