Church Of The Assumption, Ansonia, CT

The present Church of the Assumption was the concept of Rev. Joseph Synnott, the third pastor of the Assumption Parish, who became pastor in April (on Holy Thursday) of 1886. Fr. Synnott immediately saw that the first Church was too small and in August of 1888, he secured from Mrs. Charles H. Hill the property where the present Church stands on North Cliff Street at a cost of $25,000. On April 4, 1889, the same year that Ansonia became independent of Derby and was incorporated as a city, ground was broken by the men of the parish for the new Church of the Assumption.

The Church was designed by architect Patrick Charles Keely (1816-1896) of Brooklyn, New York, the leading church architect of his day. Between 1847 and 1892, Mr. Keely designed sixteen Catholic Cathedrals including the ones in Chicago, Boston, and Hartford; he also designed between 500 and 700 churches. Mr. Keely’s churches are often called “preaching churches” since they are as broad as they are long. The church was built by J. M. Wheeler of Ansonia, under the supervision of James Houghton, Patrick Keely’s son- in-law. The first stone was laid on September 16, 1889; and two years later, on Sunday, September 6, 1891, the cornerstone was put into place by Very Rev. James Hughes, V.G., acting for Bishop Lawrence McMahon, who was in Europe at the time. From the time of the ground-breaking (1889) until the time of its completion (1907), the new church took eighteen years to build.

The present Church of the Assumption was dedicated on Sunday, June 2, 1907 by the Most Rev. Michael Tierney, Bishop of Hartford.