in Florence, Arizona -

A HISTORY (1870 - 1995) by Harris Sobin

The third oldest parish in the Diocese of Tucson after St. Xavier and St. Augustine, Florence has a long, rich, and fascinating history as a Catholic community. From September of 1868 to 1898, Arizona (and Las Cruces in New Mexico) constituted a Vicariate Apostolic, administered by the Bishop of Santa Fe. So, Catholics in Florence have belonged to two different religious jurisdictions: the Diocese of Santa Fe (from the earliest records of pastoral visits to the "families on the Rio Gila" of 1868-69), and the Diocese of Tucson (from 1898 to the present time).

From 1851, into the first two decades of the twentieth century, church hierarchy and most parish priests in Arizona and New Mexico were from France. Most were trained at the Seminary of Mont Ferrand, near the present city of Clermont-Ferrand in the mountainous region of central France known as the Auvergne. Mont Ferrand became known for its excellence in training missionaries for distant lands, and was periodically visited by Bishops or their representatives to recruit missionaries for duty in the American Southwest. Because of this, Mont Ferrand was known in the Southwest as the "Nursery of the Missionaries of the New World".

In the earliest years of European settlement along the Gila (1868-1870), pioneer Catholic settlers in Florence had no permanent church. Florence was a mission (visita) of St. Augustine Parish in Tucson. Settlers attended (occasional) services held in private homes, conducted by visiting priests. The first recorded visit was that of Rev. François Boucard, assistant priest at Tucson, who (as recounted in a letter to his brother) traveled to "visiter des familles mexicaines qui vivent le long d'un magnifique fleuve, appelé Rio Gila" [visit some Mexican families who live along a magnificent river called the Rio-Gila] on 21 and 22 March 1868 and again in July and November, to perform baptisms. The next visits were those of Rev. François Jouvenceau who traveled to Florence from Tucson in November of the same year, and again in January of 1869.

In September, 1868, the Territory of Arizona was split off from the Diocese of Santa Fe, and created a Vicariate Apostolic. At the same time, Rev. Jean-Baptiste Salpointe, parish priest in Tucson since 1866, was named Vicar Apostolic and Bishop-elect for the Territory of Arizona. In early 1869, he returned to his native Auvergne to be consecrated Bishop at Clermont, and to enlist several young seminarians to aid him in his mission on the American frontier. One of the six who volunteered to return with him to Arizona was Subdeacon André Antoine Michel Echallier, 24, of St.-Dier d'Auvergne, a recent graduate of Mont Ferrand. En route to Tucson at the end of 1869, and while in New Mexico, Bishop Salpointe ordained Echallier as a priest. The little group finally arrived in Tucson in January of 1870.

Salpointe wasted no time in assigning young Father Echallier to Florence, his first parish (and the town's first resident priest). Florence was then a rapidly-expanding new agricultural settlement on the Gila River about 60 miles to the north of Tucson, founded by a few Anglo-Americans but with a predominantly Mexican-American population. By mid-July, Echallier had performed his first baptism (Isabelita Estrada, on 10 July 1870) and his first marriage. On August 25, acting as agent for Salpointe, Echallier entered into a purchase and sale contract with the promoters of the newly laid out Townsite, for a "Church Lot" of 600 feet square at the center of the new town. By December 10, 1870, the Tucson newspaper reported that a new Catholic church "20 feet by 75 feet" was nearing completion in Florence and would be dedicated the following week.

The result of this construction project was the original adobe "Capilla del Gila", or Chapel of the Gila (Room 1 on attached plan). This structure served as Florence's first parish church. Measuring 22 feet wide by 60 feet long, and built in the flat-roofed Spanish Colonial/Sonoran Style, the structure survives now as the earliest church of any denomination in Central Arizona, and the only surviving mission church of the Arizona's Territorial period. The Chapel is sited at a slight angle (3 degrees) to the town's street grid. This is probably because the original building was laid out using a magnetic compass, and magnetic north in 1870 was approximately 3 degrees east of north.

During the mid to late 1870s, and under Father Echallier's direction, an addition to the Chapel, in the form of an attached east-west wing along Eighth Street (Rooms 2, 3 & 4, plus the north 2/3ds of Room 5) was begun, for the purpose of a "school house". Construction proceeded slowly because of the scarcity of funds. At this period, the chapel was renamed as Assumption Church (Iglesia de Asunción), and on 17 March 1876, Bishop Salpointe performed the solemn blessing of the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis), "en la Iglesia de Asunción".

In 1877, Father Echallier was transferred to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for reasons of poor health. His replacement was Father Edouard Gérard, who served as Florence's second parish priest from 1877 to 1885. Father Gérard soon began bimonthly visits to serve the Phoenix area, and in 1881, completed two new mission churches in the Phoenix area, Our Lady of Carmel, Tempe, and Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Phoenix itself, making Florence the mother church for both of these major future cities of the state.

With an expanding local population, the need arose for a much bigger church, and, starting in 1882, a large, cruciform-plan, Gothic Style adobe church was constructed immediately to the west of the earlier Chapel/school complex.

This structure was consecrated by Bishop (and Vicar Apostolic) Salpointe on 25 May, 1884, as the (new) Church of the Assumption. In the same period, a 4-room adobe was built just west of the new church, for use as the parish rectory. It later served as a boy's school. At about the same time, in September, 1883, a group of four nuns of the order of St. Joseph of Carondelet (St. Louis, with mother house in Le Puy, France) arrived to take charge of the Catholic school. The original adobe chapel was converted to a class room. The nuns also took over the "schoolhouse" part of the growing complex (Rooms 2 through 5) for use as a convent, which was named St. Theresa's Academy. Room 2 or 3 probably served as the superior's room, Room 4 as the nun's common room and refectory, and Room 5 as their dormitory. Diagonal wood lath fencing enclosed a courtyard or patio space to the west of the Chapel, providing a private outdoor area for the nuns.

Two more spaces (Rooms 6 & 7) were added to the southwest portion of the convent some time between 1884 and 1890, but most probably during the building's final years of occupation by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Oral history indicates that one of these later rooms (Room 6) served as a small chapel for the nuns at some point. Early in the twentieth century, Room 7 was equipped as a kitchen, complete with an adobe chimney at the midpoint of its south wall.

Florence did not grow as expected because of its isolation from the railroad systems built across Arizona from 1877 to 1880, and because of downturns in local mining activities. Consequently, it became more difficult for the parish to support the Sisters, and as a direct consequence they were forced to close the Academy in 1888. In 1889, a group of nuns of the order of the Sisters of Mercy, from New Mexico, arrived to reopen the school. They continued serving in this capacity until 1893, when they, too,were forced to close due to local economic conditions.

After a fire destroyed the new Church of the Assumption on August 15, 1893, the old Chapel of the Gila again used as a church. During this period, probably around 1900, a semicircular and flat-roofed adobe apse was added to the south, or altar end of the Chapel. The Chapel continued to serve as Florence's parish church for 18 more years. With the visit of Bishop Henri Granjon in 1910, a building fund was begun, to replace the earlier adobe church destroyed by fire. Under the leadership of Father Henri Heitz, OCD, the last of the French priests who served the community, a new brick Mission Revival style Church of the Assumption rose on the site of its adobe predecessor. It was completed and dedicated by Bishop Henri Granjon in 1912.

For the first 44 years of its existence, Florence's Catholic parish (as most others in Arizona and New Mexico) was served exclusively by French priests. The last of the French priests (from 1904 to 1913), Father Henri Heitz, OCD, was also the first of six Carmelite priests who served in Florence between 1904 and 1959. Among these Carmelites, were (in particularly lengthy terms of service) Fathers Manubens, Delgado and Jaques.

The Chapel/Convent complex has been put to a wide variety of other uses including: indigent housing (1912-1940), recreation hall, parish hall, again for religious education(1960s and 70s), distribution center for food and clothing, and as a kitchen for the traditional Cinco de Mayo festival. In 1949, supported by a donation from an interested individual, the Chapel/Convent was extensively repaired. Concrete floors were installed, the exposed adobe walls were plastered, and a second, more waterproof sloping wood-framed metal roof was added above the original flat mud roof.

Exceptionally heavy rains in the winter of 1978-79 caused the collapse of the eastern half of the kitchen (Room 7) in April, 1979. The parish closed the building and the parish building committee decided to demolish the entire structure. Inspections by Dr. Harris Sobin, University of Arizona architect/historian and structural engineers with expertise in adobe determined that it was economically feasible to stabilize and restore the building. Consequently, Bishop Green refused to approve demolition. The parish building committee reversed its prior decision, and sought to preserve and restore the chapel, securing the building with a perimeter metal fence to protect the public. A State Historic Marker was put in place at the building in 1980; the complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (as part of the Florence Townsite Historic District) in 1982. With help from the Arizona Knights of Columbus and other agencies, including two grants from the Arizona Heritage Fund totaling $143,000, the church stabilized the eastern half of the complex in 1993, and the western half in 1998. The kitchenwas rebuilt with the stabilization of the western half.

With wise guidance and encouragement from Rev. Reginald Phelan, the parish began planning in 1985 for a major New Parish Center, to be located directly south of the Chapel/Convent complex. Completed in the spring and summer of 1987, the new structure was dedicated, appropriately enough, on Assumption Day of that year. The building received a Design Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1988, and in 1990 was rededicated as the Reginald Phelan Center, in honor of Father Phelan and his service to the parish. The building continues to serve as a commodious, effective focus for parish social and educational activities.