St. Patrick Church
Saint Patrick's Church was founded in 1841. The church was originally built at the corner of Smith and State streets with a predominantly Irish congregation that included the majority of the residents of Smith Hill. The construction of Route 95 in the 1960s physically split the parish in half. The church building was demolished in 1972 and the congregation moved to the parish school, now Saint Patrick’s Academy.
Today, St. Patrick Academy, St. Patrick Church, and the Mary House Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen are all located here. In the summer of 2011, a group of us worked in the soup kitchen. St. Patrick Academy used to be an elementary school but is now being reestablished as a high school. The current grades at St. Patrick are 8th, 9th, and 10th. The congregation, originally populated by the Irish, is currently largely of Hispanic origin.
