St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Wantagh

On June 19, 2022, the parish celebrated its 70th anniversary.

The church of St. Jane Frances de Chantal is located at 1309 Wantagh Avenue, Wantagh NY 11793, telephone 516-785-2333.  Its website is linked here.  The church is on the east side of the avenue, a half-mile south of Exit 28 of the Southern State Parkway.  It is also a mile north of the Wantagh Railroad Station.  

Archbishop Molloy established the parish in 1952.  By the 1980's, the first church suffered structural problems (as I recall, wood rot at the base of the supports), and this new church was opened in 1987.  For twenty years, a chapel, separated from the church by panels, existed to the left of the tabernacle.  In recent renovations that chapel was made part of the main body of the church.

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A school was built in the late 1950's, but in 1992, St. Jane Francis de Chantal joined three other parish schools to create St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School in Bellmore.  In 2010-2011, twenty-eight children from St. Jane Frances de Chantal attended St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.   Religious education students at St. Jane Frances de Chantal number about 1,000.

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Jeanne Françoise de Chantal lived 1572-1641.  Another biography is linked here.

St. Gertrude, Bayville

St. Gertrude Parish is on the southwest corner of School Street and Bayville Avenue, with the postal address of 28 School Street, Bayville, NY 11709, telephone 516-628-1113.  The parish website is linked here.  Bayville is on the shore of Long Island Sound.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

In 1905, a summer mission was begun in Bayville, as part of St. Dominic's, Oyster Bay.  In 1959, the bishop established St. Gertrude's parish.  

The small parking lot adjacent to the church is restricted for handicapped use during Masses, according to posted signs.  However, uphill on School Street, behind the church is a vast parking lot connected to the church by walkway.  That lot fronts on the parish center and the pre-school, pictured above.  

St. Dominic, Oyster Bay

The mailing address of St. Dominic's parish is 93 Anstice Street, Oyster Bay, NY 11771, telephone 516-922-4488.  Above is the parish office on the southeast corner of Anstice Street and Weeks Avenue.  The parish website is linked here.

On the west side of Anstice Street are the chapel (formerly the church) and the newer church.  Weekday Mass is in the chapel at 7:30 a.m.  Sundays,  four Masses are offered in the church, three in the chapel.  

Saint Dominic Elementary School adjoins the church on the north side of Weeks Avenue.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  On 5.28.2013, Newsday reported that the elementary school enrollment is 237.

Two classroom buildings of St. Dominic High School face each other across quiet Anstice Avenue.  The gymnasium can be seen to the left (north).

Holy Family, Hicksville

Above is the parish sign facing NY Highway 106, Newbridge Road, about a mile southwest of the Hicksville railroad station.  The intersection with Fordham Avenue has a traffic signal.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Photo from early 2012.

The address is 17 Fordham Avenue, Hicksville, NY 11801, telephone 516-938-3846. The parish website is linked here.  

This view looks west along Fordham Avenue towards Newbridge Road.  One entrance of the church, at the tower, leads to both naves, with the altar where they meet.  At the right of the above photo, the white door leads to the new foyer created during the 2013 renovations. The smaller nave (in the distance) had pews for about 130 but now has chairs.  The window honors the St. Ann, as shown below.  (In editing, I just realized the appropriateness of this window, as Ann is Grandma to Jesus, in the Holy Family.)
  

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The altar now faces the longer nave, as shown below.  The shorter nave is to the left of the altar.

Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Note the representation of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) to the right of the altar. Also, please note at the right the wise installation of a ramp for those who find the altar steps difficult. The baptismal font is at the left in this photo.

Clear glass provides light for the church and offers a beautiful view of trees.  Before the construction of the school in 1960, this long nave had rooms for religious ed classes during the week.  On Sunday, partitions were folded back and chairs arranged for the overflow of Sunday congregants.
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The parish was established in 1951, and a cornerstone of the smaller nave has the date 1953.  As the families grew simultaneously in the Levitt homes there was a surge in population.  The homes of parishioners have Hicksville, Westbury, East Meadow, and Levittown addresses.  Recall that William Levitt's first houses were built near Center Lane near Hempstead Turnpike.  As the years progressed, he continued to build on farmland in each direction.  At some point, he was limited by the older homes in Hicksville or places where other builders had purchased land.  Tax records show a 1952 construction date for homes near the church.

Holy Family parish school is at 25 Fordham Avenue, Hicksville NY 11801, telephone 516-938-3846. Its website is linked here.  The church is to my left.  

That's my school bag.

St. Bernard, Levittown

St. Bernard's church is located at 3100 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, New York 11756, telephone 516-731-4220.  The well-maintained parish website is linked here.  As of February, 2015, there is a current Facebook page here.

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Lined with stores, Hempstead Turnpike (NY 24) is the principal east-west thoroughfare of Levittown.  St. Bernard's church is clearly marked with the above tower on the south side of the highway, on a service road.  A driveway at the stop sign leads to the the church entrance and the six buildings which surround a vast parking lot.  The tower and rectory have scant frontage on Hempstead Turnpike, but the property runs deep to the south.

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The main entrance to the church, seen in this view north towards Hempstead Turnpike. The rectory is to the right of this driveway.

 The above view looks west.

The tower serves its purpose.  On busy and cluttered Hempstead Turnpike, the large cross marks the building as a Christian church.  From the inside, one would not guess that the tower is to the right of those windows ahead.  Like a campanile, the tower and its windows have no presence inside the church, but each (the tower and the church) serves its purpose well.
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The parish was established in 1948, shortly after the first Levitt houses were constructed nearby.  An excellent history of the parish is provided here.  At the center of Levittown, St. Bernard's is the only Catholic parish with a Levittown address.  To the north, Holy Family parish, Hicksville, includes many families living in Levitt houses.  To the east is St. James parish in northern Seaford.  To the south is the parish of St. Frances de Chantal in northern Wantagh.  To the southwest is St. Raphael, East Meadow, and to the northwest is St. Brigid, Westbury.  I do not know how many of 53,000 inhabitants of Levittown live within the borders of St. Bernard's parish.

There seem to be six or seven buildings in the parish complex. Left to right: the parish center, with the Clairvaux house (an older building peeking over the center), the church, the rectory (a white frame house), a gymnasium, and a large school now shared by Faith Formation (youth and adults), a child-care program, and classes of the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services.  A convent is to the left, but behind the camera.
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The church is about a mile east of the Wantagh Parkway.  Four Long Island Bus routes ply Hempstead Turnpike in front of the church: N70, N71, N72, and N73.

St. Anne, Garden City

The church of St. Anne is located at New Hyde Park Road and Dartmouth Street in western Garden City, almost into Stewart Manor.  Established in 1929, the parish address is 35 Dartmouth Street, Garden City, NY 11530, telephone 516-352-5904.  The parish website is linked here.

In 1950 the parish built St. Anne's School at 25 Dartmouth Street, Garden City NY 11530, telephone 516-352-1205.  The school website is linked here. According to the Official Catholic Directory of 2011, the school has a healthy enrollment of more than five hundred students.
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Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Beneath the pedestal of the statue, one can see the words "Good St. Anne," maybe inspired by the habitual French expression, La bonne Ste.-Anne.

St. Raphael, East Meadow

The new church of St. Raphael, East Meadow, has risen on a field behind other parish buildings.  The parish address is 600 Newbridge Road, East Meadow NY 11554, telephone 516-785-0236.  The parish website is linked here.

The lobby has a shrine of Archangel Raphael.  To read the text, please click on the photo.

More than twenty-five inspiring stained-glass windows surround the pews. Unlike the famous windows of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and those at St. William the Abbot parish, these windows still illuminate the church brightly.

I find it difficult to categorize the shape of the church.  Not Gothic?  Romanesque arches?  Byzantine?  Colonial?  Six pillars appear to support arches.  The dome is square, the nave and transepts T-shaped.  the pews in five directions face the altar.

Weekday Masses are at 7:30 and 9 a.m.

The parish reports 5,700 registered families.  Its geographic boundaries are, I believe, extensive, with St. Bernard to the east, St. Brigid to the north, and Sacred Heart to the south. Maybe the west boundary is the Meadowbrook Parkway, with St. Martha beyond.  The parish website is linked here.  A bulletin gave the Mass Attendance for Sunday, December 23, 2012, as 2,909.  
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It seems that one of the many ethnic groups in the parish is Filipino.  Ten years ago, a Filipino resident of Queens pointed out to me that, unlike some other groups that settled where their landsmen were (giving New York Irish, Italian, German enclaves, for example), Filipinos were spread throughout the parishes of our metropolis.
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About 1992, St. Raphael's elementary school was absorbed into St. Elizabeth Ann Seton regional school, supported by four parishes, and principally located at St. Barnabas, Bellmore.

Above are the buildings that face Newbridge Road.  To the right is the old church.  The rectory is in the center.  The school is to the left, the upper floor used by Nassau County's Academy for Emergency Medical Service personnel.  Further to the left is the entrance for the Religious Education program, apparently using the first floor; then the convent; then some rooms for the Pius XII Council of the Knights of Columbus.
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To reach the new church, one passes around the left end of the school, or one uses Pendroy Street, on the north side of the old church.  This location is about one mile north of Exit 25 of the Southern State Parkway.  Newbridge Road is also NY 106.