Holy Family Church

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Overview

Many Irish immigrant parishioners built the first Catholic Church in Duxbury, 1910.

Holy Family Church (now the Ellison Center for the Arts, 64 St. George Street) began as a mission parish in the early 1900s. At that time, priests from St. Peter’s Church in Plymouth, and the Fathers at Miramar served the small Catholic population (most likely of Irish origin) that lived in Duxbury, Until 1934 Masses were celebrated in homes, summer hotels, the Duxbury Town Hall, Mattakeeset Hall, and even tents,

By 1934, there were about 200 winter parishioners, and about 1,000 during the summer season. This increase inspired the need for a real Church and in June of that year the cornerstone for a church building was laid.

In its foyer is a stained glass window depicting a small group at worship. Wearing modest early 20th century dress, they are meant to represent the Irish domestic servants who  arrived during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although some of them worked for wealthy local families such as the Westons, many of the first Irish immigrants, mostly young women, arrived in Duxbury as domestic servants to the Bostonians who summered in Duxbury along Powder Point and the Standish Shore.

According to Carolyn Ravenscroft, Duxbury chief archivist, “Also there is an oral tradition that suggests Irish laborers were not uncommon in Duxbury. In the 1850 census, the 77 Irish-born residents who lived in Duxbury were the only foreign-born immigrants at that time. It is suggested that their presence in a community of 2600 must have been significant. With an average age of 23 years, they were men and women who worked as hired hands, shoemakers and five of the Irish men were heads of households.”