Holy Family, New Rochelle, Has Been ‘Home’ for 100 Years

When Holy Family parish in New Rochelle was established in 1913, it had neither church nor rectory. Its first pastor, Father Andrew Roche, lived at the College of New Rochelle and celebrated Mass in a former butcher shop almost two miles away that served as a chapel.

Father Roche could have reached the chapel, on Horton Avenue, by taking one of the trolleys that rolled though the city’s streets. Instead, he chose to walk—because, said Msgr. Ferdinando Berardi, Holy Family’s pastor, he wanted to save the few cents’ fare and give it to the parish.