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.

In 1917 a group of Catholic men petitioned Bishop McDonnell to establish a parish in Central Park. The men were Joseph Walsh, Sr., Frank A. Nolan, Harry A. Stolz, and William J. Ahern. Initially they were turned down as the bishop felt this small community could not support a church. Nonetheless, the bishop did purchase the land. A pledge campaign was started and three years later they produced pledges of $10,000.00 which convinced the new Bishop Thomas E. Molloy that the time was right to startup a new parish. Bishop Molloy appointed the Reverend Daniel A. Dwyer as the founding pastor. Pastor Dwyer arrived in Central Park on Friday, October 12, 1923.

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. Ground was broken on March 21, 1924 with much of the labor done by parishioners themselves. The building was dedicated on November 9, 1924.

A Jewish man,philanthropist Martin Metzner,from Lake Ronkonkoma, 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, as a result, 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.

Seventy years after the groundbreaking of the original church the parishioners of SMT took on the responsibility of expanding the church by spreading its wings with a goal to raise over one and one half million dollars in pledges. This goal was reached and on July 2, 1995 the church doors were ceremoniously closed by Farther Raymond Collins, C.S.S.R. and construction took place 1955/1956. The church was reopened and the dedication took place on September 15, 1996.

Nearly thirty years after the dedication of St. Martin of Tours Church in 1924, the need was evident for a Catholic school to educate the children. In 1952 the building fund was established to raise the money for the school, resulting in a ground breaking ceremony on May 1954. The school was opened in September 1955 and dedicated on December 8, 1957. The children were taught by the Sisters of Mercy and lay teachers.

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. (Above information from St. Martin of Tours Church Bulletin January 24, 2004)

Information from the CPHS Newsletter, May 1998 and St. Martin of Tours Rededication - September 15, 1996 book