History of Assumption Parish

Broadview Heights, Ohio
1857 - 1998

141 Years of Celebrating God's Love

Ninety-five years later, this struggling mission now boasts a thriving parish community of over 1500 families under the pastoral care of the Benedictine monks of Saint Andrew Abbey in Cleveland. The 140 year jubilee of the organization of the first Catholic community in Broadview Heights lends itself as an occasion to review the interesting, though erratic, history of Assumption parish.

In 1857, four years before Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Bishop Amadeus Rappe, first bishop of the ten-year old Diocese of Cleveland, organized the mission of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Royalton district of Cuyahoga County. Bishop Rappe met with the few Catholic families in the area and celebrated the Eucharist for them in the home of James Morrow. During the homily of the Mass, he revealed his plans for the establishment of a permanent Catholic parish in Royalton. He directed the faithful to secure a lot and to build a small church for their use. He promised to send priests from the cathedral to celebrate the sacraments regularly until a resident pastor could be named.

For the next three years, Mass was celebrated, without benefit of a church building, approximately once a month by visiting priests from the cathedral and the established Catholic parish in Liverpool (now Valley City). In 1862, Bishop Rappe appointed Father T. J. Halley of Grafton the additional duties of taking care of Assumption mission, an arrangement which lasted for the next six years. Within a year of his appointment, Fr. Halley bought a house and lot for $500 and had the house remodeled into the first church of the mission. The first church building was located at the corner of the present Royalton (Rt. 82) and Ridge (Rt. 3) Roads. However, within a year, this location proved inconvenient and Fr. Halley exchanged the property for a parcel of land on Broadview (Rt. 176) and Royalton (Rt. 82) Roads which also had a frame building on it which was remodeled into a church. This building served as Assumption Church until 1905.

After 1868, various parishes of the area sent priests to minister to the faithful of Assumption mission: from St. Augustine's parish in Cleveland (1869-1870), from St. Martin's parish in Valley City (1870-72), from St. Mary's in Rockport, now Assumption in Brookpark (1873-77), from St. Adalbert's in Berea (1877-79), and from the parish of Olmsted (1879-80). For ten years, (1882-92) a priest from St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland, Fr. J. A. TePas, traveled to the mission regularly to attend to the spiritual needs of the small congregation. However, shifts in population soon reduced the struggling mission to five families in 1892. In April of that year, the diocese stopped assigning priests for periodic visits and in essence closed the mission.

Assumption mission nearly ended its story with this premature abandonment by the diocese which lasted for eight years. However, in September of 1900, Bishop Ignatius Horstmann reopened the mission and assigned its care to St. Michael's parish in Independence. In 1905, Fr. Michael Aust of St. Michael moved the site of the mission one mile south of Rt. 82 on Broadview Road. He remodeled a house (on Behal's farm) into a church and then turned over administration of the mission to Fr. Joseph Novak of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Cleveland.

More difficulties plagued Assumption mission and within three months of Fr. Novak's appointment, the diocese again closed the church. However, once again two years later, Bishop Horstmann found a way to reopen Assumption and provide priestly service when he convinced the Jesuit priests from St. Stanislaus Novitiate (presently in Parma) to send a priest once a month for Sunday Mass, confessions, and baptisms. The Jesuits actually ministered to the thirty families of Assumption by traveling the eight-mile trip from Parma twice a month from 1907-1913.

Parish records from the first year of Jesuit administration, 1907, state that Fr. R. Meschenmoser, S.J. celebrated his first Mass at Assumption on Sunday, August 18. On November 2, twelve children made their First Communion at a beautiful liturgy in which Jesuit seminarians sang and served at the altar. The communicants had been given a two-day retreat in preparation.