History of St. Anthony Parish

After Fr. William Carey's retirement in 1948, the assistant priest, Fr. Anthony Palmasani, administered the parish. In June of 1949, Fr. Thomas Lane was assigned to our parish as pastor. Fr. Lane came to a town and parish that had grown four-fold in ten years, from a small town of about 4000 to a small industrial city of over 16,000. This rapid growth forced the parish to expand its Sunday services to include a Sunday Mass at 9:00 for those living in the Highlands. Mass was celebrated in the Highlands Administration Building on Edmonds Ave. N. E. The pioneer spirit was still in evidence in these temporary surroundings. The altar was an ordinary banquet table with stilt props to elevate it to the proper height. The celebrant priest would bring the portable "Stone".

Mary Ellen O'Brien Steiner loaned the Highlands group her antique pump organ. Mary Ellen is the granddaughter of Mr. & Mrs. John Sedlacek, pioneer settlers in Renton and at whose home the first Mass was said in Renton. The Highlands group became a kind of second parish, organizing its own Altar Society, social events, and religious education. The separate services continued until 1954 when the new church was built downtown and could once again accommodate the entire congregation.

When Fr. Lane arrived in 1949, plans were already underway for extensive additions to the school. At a cost of $90,000 a second story was added, doubling the capacity. To accommodate the additional teaching staff of Sisters, the convent was renovated to include additional rooms.

The following year, the parish began a series of building projects, which would almost totally replace the early parish facilities of church, parish hall, and rectory. Since the parish hall was in an extremely bad state of repair, Fr. Lane contracted with Bill Stollenmayer to replace the building. Bill was general contractor on the project, and the men of the parish donated most of the labor. The total cost of materials was only $25,000. Curiously, it cost that much again in 1969 when storage areas were added, and renovation of the restrooms was carried out.

In 1952, the rectory that had been built in 1909 was moved from its old site to the site of the present rectory. A concrete foundation and basement was laid to allow for meeting areas, and the house was eased onto these foundations. By 1966, the house was found to be too small to accommodate three priests and a housekeeper, plus the parlors and meeting rooms that were necessary. Fr. Lane remembers that the cost of moving and renovating the house was the same as the cost of the addition in 1966, $25,000. (And inflation is still with us!)

In the spring of 1953, church services were transferred to the parish hall temporarily so that the original old white church could be torn down to allow for the new building. A new church that would seat over 800 persons, this was the first time parish boundaries would be established. The portion of the parish north of South 120th Street in Seattle would become a new parish to be called St. Paul. Construction continued on our church building and Archbishop Thomas Connolly dedicated it on May 9, 1954. Total cost of the church building was $300,000.

Dedication of our new church building was celebrated Sunday, May 9, 1954. Years of planning and effort were culminated in this handsome edifice which stands on a site first purchased in 1905 by a group of parishioners as a site for a church. St. Anthony's new church is a tribute, in a way, to kindly, soft-spoken Irish priest, Rev. Thomas Lane. Since his arrival here in 1949 he worked hard to complete this major building program. But he would have been the first to put much of the credit where he thought it belonged -- with the people who contributed their time and money when needed -- often at a sacrifice.

St. Anthony's parish was divided several more times with parishioners going to: St. Stephen The Martyr (1966), St. Joseph in Issaquah (1966), and St. Madeleine Sophie in Bellevue (1968).

The first Renton-born priest, Rev. August Banasky offered his first Mass at St. Anthony's Church in May, 1959. Reverend Banasky began his nine years of study to be a priest at an age when most priests have been ordained. He was a graduate of St. Anthony's grade school, and entered St. Thomas Seminary at Kenmore when he was 32 years old.

After serving our parish for 25 years, Fr. Lane retired in 1974. After his retirement he continued to live at St. Anthony's in the parish house, saying Mass each morning. Archbishop Thomas A. Connolly announced that Rev. Stephen Szeman would replace Fr. Lane as pastor. Fr. Szeman had previously served as Fr. Lane's assistant from 1953 to 1957.

Fr. Szeman arrived at St. Anthony's in 1974. The Parish Council and Administration Commission had been formed the previous year, but under Fr. Szeman they flourished. Together they saw the parish through a facelift of the church and school, the formation of parish "districts", and the transition to having a Parish Administrator in 1978; St. Anthony being the first parish in the Archdiocese to do this.

A Parish-wide project occurring during this period was the sponsoring of a Vietnamese family. The Mihn Nguyen family arrived in August of 1975. The parish helped them by providing a welcoming home.

St. Anthony's parish celebrated their 75th jubilee in May 1980. Since the time St. Anthony's was designated a parish instead of a mission, it has spawned a half dozen outlying missions, which have themselves become parishes.

As parishioners sought better ways to serve the needs of the Renton community, an extensive outreach program was developed; as well as an active youth ministry and organizations for the elderly. This parish has long had a strong St. Vincent de Paul Society to serve the poor. Other services added were family counseling, and a social justice committee to examine the ways in which the community as a whole treats the individual.

In 1986 Fr. Richard Hayatsu, a Seattle native, was named pastor to replace Fr. Stephen Szeman. Father Hayatsu was actively involved in the renovation of the church building, which began on June 5, 1994. Many parishioners pitched in to remove pews, kneelers, and carpeting. The renovation of the Parish Ministry Center commenced June 6, 1994 with all the ministries temporarily relocating to the Parish Rectory. Archbishop Murphy rededicated St. Anthony Church on September 17, 1994. The Parish Ministry Center reopened on December 5, 1994. The renovation took 55 days and over a million dollars to complete.

Fr. Hayatsu encouraged growth of the parish staff, and developed a good relationship between our school and the parish.

In 1989 Fr. Lane celebrated 60 years as a priest, and 40 years at St. Anthony's. March of 1992, forty-three years after his arrival at St. Anthony's Fr. Lane was honored on his 90th birthday. He was born in Abbeyfeale, Limerick, Ireland, one of 12 children, and grew up there on the family farm. Looking over his last six decades, Fr. Lane said that life as a priest has become harder, simply because there is more to do. There are fewer priests around, he said, and there are more parishioners. The favorite part of his job was visiting people, young and old. Fr. Lane moved to Mt. St. Vincent Nursing Home in 1994 and he died in March, 1997 at the age of 95. He is remembered by an educational endowment fund that helps provide scholarships to those St. Anthony School students with financial need.

After serving our parish for 13 years, Fr. Hayatsu was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi parish at Seahurst (Burien). In 1999 Fr. Gary Zender became our pastor. Fr. Zender is a native of Bellingham, and studied for the priesthood at St. Edward and St. Thomas seminaries in Bothell, Mount Angel College Seminary in Oregon, and at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana. Fr. Zender offers the Mass in Spanish on Sunday evenings at 7pm.

Fr. James Knight Elliott came to our parish in May, 1999 to serve as Parochial Vicar. Fr. Elliott was ordained here at St. Anthony's in April, 1999. He was the first priest to be ordained in St. Anthony's Church. Fr. Elliott offers Mass on Sundays and some other days of the week for the Chinese community at Mt. St. Virgin Parish in South Seattle.

St. Anthony Parish has continued to increase in registered households from 2,082 in 1992 to our current 2,259, an increase of just under 10%. The numbers of individuals attending Sunday Mass has increased from 2,730 to 3,103, an increase of nearly 15%. At the present time (September, 2000) plans are pending for enlargement of all the facilities of St. Anthony's parish.