1948-1959
A Change in Leadership
On June 2 1948, Father Ralph J. McMonagle became the second pastor of Holy Cross. Father McMonagle was born in Cleveland on May 25, 1898 to George and Mary Ellen McMonagle. He attended the Cleveland Public Schools for eight years, then went on to St. Ignatius High School and College. He was ordained by Archbishop Joseph Schrembs at St. John's Cathedral on February 24, 1923. His first assignment was assistant pastor at St. Edward's church on Woodland Avenue. In 1926, he was sent to Immaculate Conception church on Superior Avenue. He became pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Wickliffe in 1934, a post he held until he came to Holy Cross.
Father McMonagle had been somewhat reluctant to leave Our Lady of Mount Carmel because of all the conflicts here, but he quickly brought peace to the troubled parish. He was known for his mildness and his ability to get along with people and soon parish life blossomed under his enthusiastic leadership. His first few months as pastor were devoted to preparations for construction of the long-awaited church building.
Building the Church
By the end of 1948, parish council had approved the purchase of four lots adjoining the parish property and hired an architect to draw up plans for the building. On July 10th, 1949, an 18-month fundraising campaign was undertaken to raise $150,000. Joseph Gibbons, vice-president of Fisher Brothers Co, was chairman, with ten teams of campaign workers under captains Al Anjesky, Ed Keller, Robert Cummins, Frank Gara, James Campbell, William Corbett, Stephen Vance, Mike Yano, Jack McDonough, and Eugene Brickman. $117,000 was pledged. The cost of the new church was expected to be between $350-400,000.
In February 1950, Archbishop Edward Hoban approved the plans for the new church and granted the parish permission to build. The Dunlop and Johnston Construction Company of Cleveland Heights was hired as the general contractor.
Architect James Collins designed the spacious Neo-Gothic church with the pointed arches, buttressed walls, and intricately carved stonework characteristic of the style. The church was to be constructed of seam-faced Ohio sandstone in selected shades ranging from light gray to deep brown, with contrasting trim of smooth-sawed, light-gray Indiana limestone. The sanctuary would seat 800. The basement would have an auditorium seating 850 and a kitchen. The convent, at the rear of the church and facing 200th street, would provide rooms and recreational facilities for the twelve sisters teaching in the school. Included were a reception room, community room, kitchen, offices, laundry, individual rooms, and storage space, with allowances for future expansion, if needed.
A second wing would be added to the south side of the school at a later time to connect the school and the convent. The rectory shown in the original drawings was never built. It would have been on the East Side of the church facing Lake Shore Blvd at E. 201st Street (where the parking lot is now) and connected to the church by a cloister.
On September 3, an unsuspecting Father McMonagle was summoned to the parish property for the groundbreaking ceremony, which had been planned without his knowledge. Hundreds of parishioners turned out to celebrate the end of twenty-six years of waiting and longing for a permanent church home. Pastors from several neighboring parishes also attended. At the conclusion of the festivities, parishioners gave Father McMonagle his second surprise of the day-- a new TV for the rectory.
Construction proceeded steadily throughout the first fall and winter as the ground was cleared and excavated, concrete footers poured, and bricks laid in the basement. On a chilly day in March 1951, the schoolchildren watched eagerly as the first load of Briar Hill sandstone was unloaded from the trucks. The church was supposed to have been completed in fifteen months; however, the work ended up dragging on for much longer than expected. There were so many delays that at one point Father McMonagle thought it would be easier just to finish the job himself.
While the church was being built, eight Sunday Masses were held to accommodate the crowds in the school building. The 9 and 11 AM Masses were doubled, with one Mass celebrated upstairs in the chapel and another downstairs in the basement. By fall of 1953, construction on the church had progressed to the point that Mass could be held in the basement auditorium, and the "temporary" chapel in the school was converted into four desperately needed classrooms.
The altar was consecrated in December of 1955. Archbishop Hoban offered Mass and dedicated the church and convent in May 1956. He was assisted by priests from St. Rose, St. Paul, St. William, St. Felicitas, St. John Cathedral, St. Joseph High School, and the Diocesan Retreat House.
The focal point of the newly completed church was the 14-foot cross with its life-size hand-carved corpus above the main altar. Inside the communion rail, the sanctuary was adorned with bronze tabernacles on the three marble altars and wooden statues imported from Italy. The two side chapels had Munich colored glass and carved wooden statues of the Sacred Heart and St Anthony. In the rear of the church, a baptistry and a glass-enclosed cry room flanked the main entrance, with a choir loft directly above. The cry room had a speaker system from the sanctuary and pulpit and an Infant of Prague shrine.
All of the stained glass windows in the church were designed by the world-renowned stained glass artist, Rudolf R. Sandon. Sandon was the sixth generation of a family of Italian artists to work with stained glass. He spoke five languages, was a master interpreter of the Bible, and also held doctorates in engineering, architecture, art history, and theology. He imported glass from Germany, France, and England to produce the windows, which were assembled by artists in his St Clair Avenue studio and placed in the church one by one as money came in.
The window in the baptistry was installed first and was dedicated to the artist's daughter, Barbara, who was the first child to be baptized in the new church. The resurrection window over the main entrance was finished in 1954. By the time the church was dedicated in 1956, the windows in the side chapels that depict the seven sacraments had been installed. The first of the sanctuary windows were completed in 1957- one was dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, and the other depicted Pope Pius XII defining the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. They were the kind gift of Isabella Guild and John DeMarco. The rest of the sanctuary windows show episodes from the history of the cross and were placed in the sanctuary so as to tell the story in chronological order. At the time of their installation, Holy Cross was thought to be the only parish of that name in the United States whose windows actually told the story of the cross. The windows were not completed until 1959.
