About MPB School

A New Parish

The year was 1922. In Washington, D.C., great leaders of world powers gathered to discuss joint limitations on naval forces. In Brooklyn, New York, another meeting was taking place in the offices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. In a decision less newsworthy than those made in Washington, the newly installed Bishop Thomas Edmund Molloy established a new parish to serve the spiritual needs of Catholic families in the rapidly growing area of Astoria, Northwestern Queens. Summoning Father Edward Holran from Garden City, Bishop Molloy charged him with the responsibility of establishing the new parish – to be known as Most Precious Blood.

Having nothing more to work with than the deed to a piece of property (the site of our present rectory), Father Holran promptly made arrangements to rent Hettinger’s Broadway Hall, a brick-front dance hall in the Greco-Roman style that looked more like a firehouse than either a dance hall or a church. It, however, had the advantage of being large. The Hall extended back from Broadway through what is now the parking lot to the wall of the present rectory. A wing of the dance hall extended to Thirty-Sixth Street behind some small stores that were situated on Broadway.

The First Mass was probably celebrated in the dance hall on July 1, 1922, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood. A newspaper article dated two years later describing another anniversary indicates the Feast date was the opening date of the parish.

According to parish books, Father Holran performed the first Baptism on July 2, 1922. The recipient of the Sacrament was Elizabeth Harlan, daughter of James and Henrietta Harlan. The first recorded wedding was performed by Father Holran on September 10, 1922, joining John Cordo and Barbara Lohn in Holy Matrimony.

Father Holran’s first parish residence was in an apartment house (the main part of the present convent) owned by a Mrs. Funk and her married daughter, Mrs. Frieda Powers, whose name appears again later in our narrative. The woman who took care of Father Holran’s apartment was Mrs. Anna Krlis whose family still lives in the parish, and whose grandson, Reverend William Krlis offered his First Mass here in June, 1968.

Among those who greeted Father Holran on his arrival at Most Precious Blood were: Thomas J. Quinn, the funeral director, whose son, Raymond, took over his father’s business; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hebron, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, Sr., Mrs. Mary Hess, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Murphy, Mrs. Michael Forester, Mrs. Ketterle, who lived on Thirty-Eighth Street, and Mr. and Mrs. Tom Mullane. Tom was the first usher and sexton of the new parish. His daughter, Monica, conducted the Funeral Home opposite Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church which was founded by her deceased husband, George D. Dowdall.

Within a year of the founding of the parish, Father Holran retained New York architect, Robert Reiley, to design his rectory. With a foresight almost prophetic in its accuracy, our first pastor commissioned a building which, though built in 1923, had accommodations that are still adequate for our present staff of six priests, and office space that is still sufficient for present parish needs. The cost of the rectory was just over sixty-nine thousand dollars.

The first occupants of the new rectory along with Father Holran were his curates, Reverend James Heneghan, 1923-1924; Monsignor Peter E. Keleher, 1924-1925; Reverend Edward A. McGowan, 1924-1925; and Reverend John T. Bourke, 1925.