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Like most northeastern towns in the 19th century, New Castle had a small Catholic population, mostly limited to Irish immigrants. These Catholics formed St. Mary’s Parish, the city’s first, in 1852. The original church was located on the west bank of the Shenango River. By 1871, the parish had erected a new church at this site, in the main commercial and residential district of New Castle.
The current Gothic church was built in 1925. It has long been considered New Castle’s ‘Irish’ church. Other immigrant groups established their own parishes as the city’s tin moguls imported cheap labor from Southern and Eastern Europe – one Italian church was formed on the south side, and another in Mahoningtown; a Polish church was formed on the west side.
At one time, St. Mary’s operated a parochial school. When I was young, I thought the church was constructed with black stone. It was actually just soot. The soot has been blasted away, they have restored the interior (after decades of peeling paint), changed the name of the parish to Mary, Mother of Hope, and landscaped a shrine.
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