St. Mary's 50th Anniversary

St. Mary's 50th Anniversary Celebration of the building dedication
with Archbishop Samuel Aquila on June 25, 2017

1967 Photo of St. Mary Church, Brush

2017 Photo of St. Mary Church, Brush

YouTube Video

Archbishop Casey with Fr. Ahern

Celebrating Mass

June 1966 Groundbreaking ceremony

June 19, 1967 Dedication Mass

March 12, 1967 First Mass in new church

Proposed Architectural Plans

Proposed Church & Rectory plan

June 11, 1967 Open House

June 25, 2017 - St. Mary's 50th Anniversary Photo with Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila and pastor Fr. Marek Ciesla

History at a glance

Aug 1958 - Fr. Ahern arrives to shepherd 100 Catholic families. Parish will double by 1967.
March 1966 - Mr. Alonzo Petteys donates nine building lots for a new church with the stipulation that construction begin in six months.
April 1966 - Mr. Jack Boxer & Mr. Alonzo Petteys donate $10,000 ($5,000 each) to start the building campaign. Archbishop Vehr also presents a substantial donation of about $17,000 from the first Archdiocese Development fund from all of Colorado to all of Brush.
June 1966 - Mr. & Mrs. Ed Hackert, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, turned the first shovel of dirt at the ground breaking ceremony.
March 12, 1967 - First Mass in the new church.
June 3, 1967 - First Nuptial Mass held for Miss Mary Lynn Graf and Mr. Walter Marsh.

Vertical Divider

June 11, 1967 - Open house for the community.
June 19, 1967 - St. Mary Church dedication of the new building and Mass celebration with Archbishop Casey. Fr. Joseph O’Malley provided the dedication address to the parish. Fr. Breunig (former pastor), Fr. Ahern (pastor), Fr. Nevans, and Fr. Carroll concelebrated Mass.
Mrs. Nellie Wittwer - was the only person to witness both dedications of the first St. Mary’s on Custer Street in 1912, and the new St. Mary’s on Stanford in 1967. Mrs. Wittwer served as organist for the parish for over 48 years.
Cost to build church & rectory: $163,560
Seating: 490 approximately
Upper level: 5,549 sq. ft.
Lower level (parish hall): 4,338 sq. ft.
Architect: Mr. Henry J. DeNicola, Denver