St. Leo's Firsts

Saint Leo’s Firsts

• First cost, 1880: Archbishop Gibbons bought three lots at the corner of Stiles and Exeter Streets for $25,000

• First construction: builder, Edwin Brady; architect, E. Francis Baldwin, who designed Saint Leo’s in a curious mix of Italianate, Romanesque and classical elements

• First pastor, 1881: Reverend Joseph Leo Andreis, native of Turin, Italy, who served for 22 years until his death in 1903

• First Mass: January 23, 1881

• First altar boys: Eugene Pessagno and Frank Valentini

• First children baptized: Leo Francis Bacigalupo and Eugene Leo Pessagno, during the first Mass

• First funeral: March 12, 1881, for Carlo Antonio Chiesa

• First Confirmation ceremony: January 28, 1883, by Archbishop James Gibbons, with a group of 27 boys and 42 girls.

• First assistant pastor: 1903, Reverend Thomas J. Monteverde (ordained 1890, died 1905), son of Genoans

• First organist: Mary “Minnie” Malloy, who held this post for over half a century; following her, and serving for 49 years, was Elizabeth D’Adamo Broccolino

• First Saint Anthony Festival: June 13, 1904

• First order of priests: 1909, Italian-based Pallottines of the Immaculate Conception Province

• First electric lamp installed: 1917

• First Mother Superior: Sister Mary Margaret

• First Little Italy Little League: 1957; its first commissioner was Lou Catalfo

• First Girl Scout Troop: 1965

• First Pizza Dance: 1966