St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church - Altoona, Pennsylvania - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

The church is active and has a large congregation. It is located at 1405 5th Avenue, Altoona. Scheduled Mass Saturday Evening – 4:00 PM Sunday Morning – 8:00 AM.

From their website:
" In 1852, Altoona was a small village of approximately 2,000 people. The expansion of the railroad shops drew a large number of working people to Altoona where the prospect of permanent employment was quite promising. Included in this number who located here were Catholics of German and Irish birth and descent. The first parish organized in 1852 was St. John’s Parish (now the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament) which served the needs of the early settlers. At regular intervals (usually monthly) the Benedictine Fathers would travel to Altoona from St. Vincent Arch-abbey in Latrobe to minister to the German parishioners at St. John’s. They crossed the mountains walking and making use of any means of transportation available to them. They ministered liturgically and sacramentally in the German language.

As the number of German Catholic immigrants increased, in 1855 a small group of them petitioned the bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese, of which Altoona was then a part, for a German speaking pastor so that they might establish a parish of their own. In 1860 the German Congregation of the Roman Catholic Faith of Altoona, as it was legally called, was organized.

As is always the case, it was quite a problem to gather sufficient funds. Nevertheless, a site was chosen on the East side of town at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street (then called Rebecca and Caroline Streets), the church was planned and the actual construction began early in 1860 with all the labor being performed by members of the parish. After their day’s toil in the railroad shops, the men would come directly to the church site, excavate for the foundations and perform whatever other tasks were laid out for them. The women would bring the men their meal and then the following day would haul away the dirt and debris of the previous day’s work.

The first church was a frame building, 70 feet in length and 40 feet in width. On December 18, 1860 the new church was dedicated by the new Bishop of Pittsburgh, Bishop Michael Dominec and it was placed under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of her Immaculate Conception. Today the parish is generally known as St. Mary’s. The first church building was soon too small for the growing congregation and the construction of a new and larger church was completed in 1883. It was 120 feet in length and 50 feet in width."

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