St. Thomas Aquinas Church

The first recorded Catholic service in Adams was in 1845, when Fr. Bernard O'Cavanagh reportedly said Mass in the home of Michael Madden. In the years following, various priests visited Adams occasionally and offered Mass for the local (mostly Irish) Catholic population.

In January of 1863, Fr. Charles Lynch was appointed pastor of St. Francis church in what is today North Adams, but at that time was still part of the town of Adams. Seeking a location to serve his congregation in the southern half of the large town, in 1870 he purchased the old Congregational meeting house (built 1848), moved it to its current location on 71 Park Street (now behind Real Eyes Gallery), and remodeled it into a Catholic church under the patronage of St. Charles Borromeo. The church was blessed by Bishop Patrick O'Reilly on October 23, 1870.

On September 12, 1875, the new parish of St. Thomas Aquinas was established for the church, with Fr. Edward P. McCort as its first pastor. Three years later, in 1878, the northern half of the town split off into North Adams, leaving St. Thomas in Adams as the town's first Catholic parish.

To accommodate the growing parish population, the next pastor of the parish, Fr. Denis C. Moran, began construction of St. Thomas Aquinas church. James Murphy of Providence, RI was hired as the architect, and Toomey and Shea of Holyoke as the contractor. The church cornerstone was blessed by Bishop Thomas Beaven on May 17, 1896. When the basement was completed in 1897, it was blessed for
sacred use, and services were held there while construction and furnishing continued for the church proper.

Fr. Thomas McLaughlin succeeded Fr. Moran in the pastorate of St. Thomas. He worked quickly to finish the remaining work for the exterior and interior of the church. In 1907, granites steps were placed, walls stuccoed, pews furnished, an organ purchased, stained-glass windows installed, and a steeple bell procured. The church was finally completed and blessed for sacred use on June 16, 1907, by Bishop Thomas Beaven.

In the 1940s and 1950s, then-pastor Fr. James A. Lahey improved the church property by adding rose gardens, shrubbery, and a shrine to Our Lady. Inside the church, he installed new carpeting and lighting, and a new marble statue of Our Lady. He harmonized other statues by changing their appearance from multicolored to white, and added gold-leaf to the sanctuary light and other items in the church. He also
procured automatic chimes for the steeple and refined the organ.

The years 1962-1965 witnessed the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Many changes in liturgy and customs swept through American churches in its aftermath. While other Catholic churches in America were removing their ornate altars, St. Thomas retained its altar, bringing it down to the floor level and preserving the beautiful reredos behind it.

The 1970s saw the church interior redecorated with gold leaf, and its pillars refreshed. A new organ was purchased, and the large sacristy was repurposed into a chapel for daily Mass, dedicated to Pope John XXIII.

In 1993, Fr. Daniel Boyle was appointed pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas parish. The following year, Fr. Boyle assumed the additional pastorate of the neighboring Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs parish. He continued as pastor of both parishes until 1998, when they were merged into one Parish of Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs and St. Thomas Aquinas. In 2003, the pastorate of St. Stanislaus Kostka, the third Catholic parish in Adams, was added to Fr. Boyle's duties.

Finally, in 2009, both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Stanislaus parishes were suppressed, and all three former Adams parishes were merged into a new parish on the Notre Dame campus under the patronage of Blessed (now Saint) John Paul II, with Fr. Boyle continuing as pastor. Notre Dame church remained as the parish church, although it retained its original name (a solemnly consecrated church's name cannot
be changed without a grave reason and special permission of the Apostolic See). The churches of St. Thomas and St. Stanislaus were closed. St. Thomas remained closed. After an appeal by the parishioners of St. Stanislaus, Rome overturned the closure of St. Stanislaus church in 2012, and today it serves as a Mission Church in the parish of Saint John Paul II.

After its closure, St. Thomas Aquinas church served as the location of the parish charity center for the poor of the Adams area. The charity center was closed in 2022, and today the church's future has yet to be determined.

St. Thomas Aquinas Centennial Anniversary Book 1875-1975