Earliest Days

        Among our spiritual ancestors are counted a number of Indians, members of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, who inhabited this region and were converted to Christianity by the earliest missionary explorers.  The strongest of the tribes, the Mohawks, owned the land on the west side of the Hudson from Canada to the Catskill Mountains.  Next to come were the adventurous French fur trappers of the 16th Century who traded along the Hudson River Valley and up to the Cohoes Falls.  Henry Hudson's explorations for the Dutch East India Company in 1609 further opened the area for colonization and paved the way for the first Dutch settlers who began to populate the region.

        In the 1630's, Kilian Van Rensselaer, an Amsterdam pearl merchant, became the patroon of about seven hundred thousand acres of land that today comprises Albany, Rensselaer, and a portion of Columbia Counties.  On this land, along the flat banks of the Hudson where soil was fertile, the Dutch farmers settled.

        On March 7, 1788, the township of Watervliet was founded from the western part of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck.  (Watervliet  is an apt Dutch name meaning water and vlak te - level plains or flats.)  Gradually, more settlers arrived and by 1796 there were twenty stagecoaches plying the post roads of the area.

        In 1813 the United States Government decided that Watervliet afforded a good location in which to build an arsenal.  Small arms and ammunition were made here prior to the 1860's.  During the tragic days of the Civil War,  the arsenal, employing some two thousand workers, was used for the manufacture of three-inch shells and cartridges for muskets.  Converted to a gun factory at the decision of the Army Board of Ordnance in 1887, the arsenal continues to provide employment, adding to the area's growth and evolvement.  (The Watervliet Arsenal was designated a Registered National Historic Landmark in 1966.)

        Although relatively few in number in early colonial days, Catholics in the region played prominent roles in the development of the burgeoning nation.  At first, with no churches of their own, Catholics in the scattered, outlying settlements traveled to Albany to attend services at St. Mary's, which was established in 1797.  Infrequent visits by itinerant missionaries offered the only other opportunity for formal worship.  Slowly, other parishes were founded to meet the growing needs of an expanding immigrant population that came to the United States in ever-increasing numbers from 1817 on, when work on the construction of the Erie Canal began.

        New York Governor DeWitt Clinton and other men of vision realized how beneficial such a Grand Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River, would be.  For almost a century, the canal was closely associated with the economic fortunes of Watervliet.  Its construction called for a huge labor force, much of which was originally provided by Irish emigrants - people who had the courage to leave their homeland, in part to escape religious persecution.  Those from the south of Ireland were usually Catholic; those from the north, Presbyterian.  At first their religious difference created some problems, but in a country where all were free to worship as they saw fit, religious bigotry could only be a temporary, albeit unpleasant, condition.
 

Beginning of St. Brigid's

        Father Thomas Kyle, pastor of St. Patrick's Church (founded 1839), realized that something more had to be done to meet the needs of those in his enlarged parish, which then included the Port Schuyler area, the Southern section of the old village of West Troy.  As a result of Father Kyle's efforts, the cornerstone of St. Brigid's was laid and blessed by the first bishop of Albany, John McCloskey, at 3:00 p.m. on October 27, 1850.  Bishop McCloskey later became America's first Cardinal.

        The church, on the northwest corner of Salem and Mansion Streets, was completed in 1851, but the first resident pastor, Father William Cullinan, did not take up his duties until 1854.  In the meantime, St. Brigid's served as a mission where Masses were said by priests probably traveling from Albany, and then later from churches in Troy.  Home Masses were also not uncommon, according to some of our older parishioners, who remember their grandparents' stories of a Jesuit priest rowing across the river to say Mass in private homes on Groton Street.

        In continuous use since the 1850's, St. Brigid's Church's simple lines, in the modern Romanesque style with rounded doors and windows, have not been dated.  The original steeple was much higher than the present one, but it was destroyed by lightning in 1948.

        Inside, the older stained glass windows feature symbols of our faith.  They line both sides of the church.  The windows in the front portray the Immaculate Conception and St. Brigid.  The two in the rear depict the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord.  These are of a later date as is one over the center door which artistically represents Christ calling people to religious life.

        The lovely frescoes on the ceiling over the sanctuary represent the Assumption of the Blessed Mother.  The other frescoes around the church ceiling portray the apostles and their noble work.

    Church interior, 1916

Building and Growing

        Father Cullinan realized the importance of sound Christian education as did his parishioners, and he began St. Brigid's first school.  To be sure, it was a far cry from our present one, but that one-room, ungraded school was the beginning of a long and proud tradition of dedication to academic excellence.  We still owe thanks to the efforts of those early lay teachers who so ardently strove to educate our youth.

        After Father Cullinan's death in 1882, Father James A. Curtin became our new pastor.  One of Father Curtin's main concerns was the partial renovation and expansion of the church and tiny school.  A sacristy was added, doubling the seating capacity, a bell was purchased, and other necessary improvements to the church were made.

        He purchased land known as the Sague property on the southwest corner of Groton and Mansion Streets.  One building was used as the rectory, with others to be converted into a school and a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph.  Until their residence was completed, these dedicated Sisters used to row across the Hudson in good weather to fulfill their duties.  During the cold winter months, they walked across the frozen river.

        This original school is still used for grades three through eight.  At the time it was erected, St. Brigid's School was acclaimed as one of the finest schools in the capital district.  With the acquisition of an academic charter in the name of Watervliet Academy in 1898, St. Brigid's was also the first school to offer a high school course in West Troy, as that part of Watervliet was then called.

Father Busch recently shared new information identifying that our school was founded in 1854!  The school was actually founded by a priest and lay teachers from the parish. It became Watervliet Academy (K-12) in 1891 and was renamed St. Brigid's School in 1921. 

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