St Martin of Tours

St. Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church is located on the north side of Central Avenue between Broadway and Seaman Avenue.

On October 14, 1923 the first mass was offered by the founding Pastor Daniel A. Dwyer at the Republican Clubhouse on Broadway. Until that time, parishioners attended mass at St. Killian's Church in Farmingdale or St. Ignatius Church in Hicksville. It was just about a month when Pastor Dwyer officiated at the first wedding of his newly established parish. The wedding that joined Antonio Finamore and Stella Ruggiero in Holy Matrimony was held at Father Dwyer's residence on 188 Herman Avenue on November 18, 1923. The parish then rented property that is now St. Vincent DePaul building on Broadway which served as rectory and Church until the Church was built in 1924.

A Jewish man, Martin Ferber, donated $25,000.00 toward the building of the church. It was said, the naming of the church, St. Martin of Tours, to honor our benefactor.

An apparition of the Blessed Mother holding her infant son was seen on the wall of the newly completed church which brought many people to view this site, and which brought thousands of dollars to help with expenses of this newly built church. The Long Island Railroad added additional trains, called Pilgrim Trains, to accommodate the people who wanted to view the miracle. The apparition gradually disappeared.

On March 21, 1924 ground was broken to commence the building of St. Martin of Tours Church and in that same year, on November 9, 1924 the new church was dedicated. St. Martin of Tours Church has been blessed with each passing decade to have Pastors and Curates who have been so much a part of the success in the development and spiritual life of the parish. The growth of the parish community resulted in the building of the school, which was dedicated on December 8, 1957 and again the beautiful enlargement of the Church which was dedicated September 2, 1996. St. Martin of Tours' parish has grown from a handful of parishioners in the '20s to about 3,300 parish families in the '60s and going into the millennium with 4,500 parish families. Fr. Thomas Siconolfi of the Redemptionist Community has been Pastor of St. Martin of Tours since August 1999 assisted by the Redemptionists Fathers Vincent Crotty, Thomas Schmitt and John Patton. At this time, the church has three deacons: James Biggin, Eugene Capobianco and Frank Carrelo. With the restructuring of the diocesan school system, the school is now known as the LaSalle Regional School with campuses in Bethpage, and Farmingdale, serving the parishes of St. James R.C. Church, St. Killian R.C. Church, St. Martin of Tours, R.C. Church and St. Pius R.C. Church.

In January 2004 the closing of St. Martin of Tours school was announced. About ten years ago due to raising salaries, benefits, insurance, utilities, etc. together with a decline in the number of students, the four parishes of our region (St. Killian, St. Pius, St. James and St. Martin of Tours) acted to preserve Catholic Education by combining their four schools into one school but on two sites, one in Farmingdale and the other site in Bethpage called LaSalle Regional Catholic School. This process, called Regionalization, was the norm for many parishes on the Island. At present, in 2004, there are 164 St. Martin of Tours parish families who attend the school. The number of students after the first regionalization was 819, but has dwindled down to 459 at present. This reality forced the School Board, consisting of the four pastors, with four parents as voting members, who meet with the two principals, two teachers and four parish financial representative to go through a difficult process. After weighing several options the School Board concluded that the continuation of the school in its current format would lead to greater deficits and finally bankrupt the school completely. The School Board has acted very reluctantly to save the school by closing St. Martin of Tours and thus cut duplicate expense.

The real cost to educate one of our children in Catholic School is $6,000.00 per child. The four parishes subsidize the school with a combined $600,000.00 per year.

The school building will still be used by the more than sixteen hundred parish children who in four different sessions attend religious instruction each week. (Information from St. Martin of Tours Church Bulletin January 24, 2004)

Below information from the CPHS Newsletter, May 1998

There was the desire of the small farming community of Central Park to have a local place to worship for its people, and distinguished leaders of the community worked to achieve this goal. The Catholic community was lead by Joseph Walsh, Sr., Frank A. Nolan, Harry A. Stolz, and William J. Ahern and they petitioned Bishop McDonnell to establish a parish in Central Park so they would not have to travel to St. Killian's in Farmingdale or St. Ignatius in Hicksville.

Their unyielding efforts were acknowledged and Reverand Daniel Dwyer was appointed by Bishop Molloy to establish the parish of Saint Martin of Tours. Farther Dwyer arrived in Central Park on October 12, 1923 and on Sunday October 14th Father offered the first mass in Roosevelt Republican Hall on the west side of Broadway two blocks north of the railroad tracks. Father Dwyer took up residence at 188 Herman Avenue and officiated at the first wedding of Antonio Finamore and Stella Ruggiero at his residence. Later a building on Broadway, now known as St. Vincent dePaul, was rented then purchased to serve as a church and rectory.