The 1940s

During World War II, Holy Cross was well-represented in the military, with 220 parishioners in the army, 90 in the navy, 30 in the marines, 10 in the coast guard, 2 WACS, and 4 nurses. On the home front, defense contracts brought industrial expansion and new jobs to Euclid, making it the fastest growing city in the United States. The parish was increasing in size too, exploding from 380 families in 1940 to 1025 families in 1949. Enrollment in the school more than doubled in the same period of time, from 272 to 632 students.

Growth and Crowding
The tiny chapel in the school had always been crowded, but now it was filled to overflowing. Many times Dr. Kirby had the children sit around the altar to make more room for the adults in the pews. The school was getting cramped, too. The classrooms on the second floor and in the basement were no longer able to hold all of the students, so one side of the chapel was used for classes. Every Sunday after the last Mass, men would tackle the weekly chore of moving pews aside to make room for students' desks. The ritual was reversed on Saturday mornings, when the desks were replaced with pews once again for the weekend liturgies.

The overcrowding was relieved slightly in May of 1946 with the founding of the parish of St. William. The new parish cut off the eastern half of Holy Cross and forced a readjustment of the boundaries between Holy Cross and the neighboring parishes of St. Paul and St. Christine. St. William had been planned as early as 1928, when the diocese began receiving a number of requests from people in the Brush Road area, near the county line, to start a new parish there. If formed, the new parish would have taken between 35 and 50 families away from Holy Cross. That doesn't sound like a lot of people, but at the time there were only 250 families to shoulder the burden of a staggering $98,000 debt. Panic-stricken at the possibility of losing as many as 20% of his parishioners, Dr. Kirby wrote to Bishop Schrembs imploring him to reconsider:

I beg leave to say that this loss to Holy Cross will be deeply felt, inasmuch as these families have pledged themselves to assist in the financial burden of the parish, and our present school was built counting on their help. If taken away at this time, I feel I cannot be responsible for the financial burden that is involved here. I therefore respectfully ask you to keep intact our present boundaries until more people are here and the school is complete and paid for.

Dr. Kirby was not alone in this crusade. He was joined in his opposition by the pastor of Immaculate Conception, Fr. Nash, who would also have been adversely affected by the founding of a new parish. The two of them were able to have the new parish put off until 1946, when the loss of revenue and families was not as devastating as it would have been in 1928.

The economic prosperity and increase in membership in the 1940s meant the parish could finally climb out from under its crippling debt and begin planning for expansion. The first priority was to enlarge the cramped school building. A fundraising campaign in 1943 netted $42,500-- enough to completely pay for construction, furniture, and supplies for the new north wing with its six classrooms. Ground was broken on June 20, 1944. Construction was held up for a while in the fall because of a steel shortage, but the project was completed on February 11, 1945. The request to build a south wing at this time had been denied by the War Production Board.

Dr. Kirby was very upset about the delays in carrying out his plans for the parish and he often protested about the situation in his sermons. In spite of the difficulties he had already encountered in trying to build during the war, he fully intended to begin construction of a church as soon as he possibly could. On October 1, 1944 he announced the beginning of a building fund drive administered by the Laymen's Executive Committee. They hoped to have $60,000 by January of 1945. With this money in hand, Dr. Kirby would hire an architect to draft plans and seek the Bishop's approval to build if war conditions permitted.

In 1945 a house at 175 East 201st Street was purchased to replace the old rectory on East 191st Street. The house had been owned by Mr. and Mrs. DeLisle (Margaret) Barnes.