The story behind Sts. Simon and Jude

A LOOK BACK

This week, I headed over to Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in

answer to a note I received from parish receptionist Dee Wallace.

Dee wanted to remind me that this year their senior Pastor Fr.

Alexander Manville would be celebrating 50 years as a Franciscan

priest and that next year the church plans to hold a big celebration

for him.

Fifty years at one job in an almost unheard of accomplishment in

today’s fast-paced society.

As I neared Magnolia Street and Indianapolis Avenue, a magnificent

modern-looking structure appeared ahead of me. But this church is

anything but modern to Huntington Beach’s history. It was back in

1904 that Pacific City changed its name to Huntington Beach and in

the next year of 1905 that a small mission out of St. Joseph’s in

Santa Ana was organized in this sparsely populated area of Orange

County.

The congregation rented space inside a Sunby’s Department Store on

Main Street where they held mass and they called their new mission

church St. Mary.

The priest had to travel all the way down here in his electric

automobile from St. Anthony’s in Long Beach.

In 1908 the parishioners purchased a small piece of property that

included a Protestant church and small house on the lot at 10th

Street and Orange Avenue. The small house became their Parish Hall.

During those first masses, the congregation sat on wooden planks

and boxes. In 1912 their first permanent pastor, the Rev. Andrew

Reynolds came to St. Mary’s and in that same year the parish was

officially established.

Reynolds stayed for three years at St Mary’s and in 1915 he was

succeed by the Rev. Henry S. O’Reilly, followed by the Rev. Francis

Woodcutter in 1918. There followed a series of four more pastors --

Charles Brilkopf, Henry Feeny, Frederick Wekenman and Louis Genest.

The oil boom in Huntington Beach was beginning and the population

of the town was growing in 1921 when the name of the parish was

changed to Saints Simon and Jude.

Needing a larger building, the congregation sold the first church

building and had it removed from the site. A new church and rectory

was built on that lot and cost somewhere between $15,000 to $21,000

to construct and would seat 300.

The new church still stands today at 10th Street and Orange

Avenue.

The Architect for the church building was Lawrence Ott of the firm

Barker & Ott, and when their next church was built in 1973, this same

firm did the designs.

In 1924 the Rev. Gabriel Ryan took charge and he was there for the

next two years. Ryan passed away in 1936.

During the Christmas holiday of 1927 the Monday night card party,

sponsored by Sts. Simon and Jude, was postponed until January. Their

Christmas program for that year included a midnight mass in which the

Rev. William Nugent sang a High Mass in honor of the birth of the

Savior.

In April 1938 the church celebrated Good Friday with an evening

mass on “The Passion” delivered by H. James Doyle.

In 1940 Father Jerome “Jerry” O’Neil burned the mortgage on the

church property.

The old Parish Hall of 1908 was demolished in 1962 so that an oil

well, St. Jude No. 1, could be drilled. This well did not do well and

was replaced with a parking lot in 1971.

In 1964 the Los Angeles Archdiocese invited the Franciscan Friars

to staff the parish and the Rev. Colman Colloty became their first

Franciscan pastor.

The church purchased the site at Magnolia and Indianapolis in 1966

and a ground-breaking for the new Parish site was held. The old site

on 10th Street was too small for the expanding congregation and

regularly celebrated Sunday Mass had to be held elsewhere including

at Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley High Schools.

With the sudden passing of Colloty at age 51, his brother Ronald

became pastor in 1969.

What the parishioners had been waiting for, for so long finally

happened in February of 1974 when their new church was dedicated at a

cost of $475,000.

The year 1987 was a joyous year for the church as they celebrated

its Diamond Jubilee with Manville firmly at the helm. In 1994 the

current pastor, the Rev. Laurence Dolan was appointed.

And so you can see, this church’s history reaches back to almost

the very beginning of our town’s history. And as I pulled up to the

church its cross on the roof beckoned me into this lovely bit of

Huntington Beach history.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.