St. John the Evangelist Church

As more and more people began to emigrate from Europe, they tended to settle in clusters and then small communities of fellow countrymen. Watertown in the 1840’s had no Roman Catholic church, but it did have a Congregational, Methodist and Episcopal church. A Congregational chapel existed in the south end of Oakville.

Michael Dunn was the first recorded Catholic to come to Watertown in 1841. What he did for a living and where he lived are unknown. Several thriving businesses existed at that time including Heminway and Sons Silk Company, Heminway and Bartlett, Capewell Casting and the Pin Shop in Oakville. In addition, there were opportunities in domestic service. Church goers had a choice of travelling to Waterbury or Thomaston for services.

Watertown began as an out-mission of Thomaston. The earliest recorded visit was by Rev. Michael O’Neil in 1855. This took place in the Cutler Street residence of John McGowan. The second Mass was at the Cherry Avenue home of Robert Torrence. A third Mass was at the Steele Brook Road home rented by Michael Dunn. By 1862, there were a half dozen Catholic families in town.

With such a following, a group went to Hartford to petition for local Mass privileges. Priests began to come from Waterbury every three months while the faithful journeyed to Waterbury in the interim. Priests also made visits to the Citizen’s Hall on Woodruff Avenue. This was a wooden hall - once the structure of Christ Episcopal Church. It had been bought by George Woodruff and moved. When Thomaston received a resident pastor, Watertown was placed under the care of the Rev. Eugene Gaffney. In 1877, the site of the original St. John’s Church was purchased at 689 Main Street. This site was changed because it required a cellar. For the sum of six hundred dollars a new plot was purchased at the corner of Main Street and Woodruff Avenue. The newly constructed church cost seven thousand dollars.

Seven years later the Watertown mission separated from Thomaston to become a parish with Terryville as its mission. The first resident pastor was Rev. Joseph Fones. He built a rectory and soon after a barn behind it. By 1886 he was reassigned to the French speaking community in Waterbury.

The church community continued to grow while adding a school. In 1928 the Rev. Cornelius Teulings became pastor and recognized that a new church was needed to replace the smaller wooden structure. Property formerly owned by Merritt Heminway at 548 Main Street was purchased as the site. But the crash of the stock market ushered in the Great Depression and things were put on hold. Fund raisers and capital drives proceeded for a number of years to fulfill the ultimate dream of a larger church. It wasn’t until September of 1956 that work began. The new church was dedicated on April 11, 1959 by Bishop Henry J. O’Brien. Subsequent additions have been made to the property. The site of the original church at Woodruff and Main is now the site of the St. John the Evangelist School.