Elaborate artwork covered the domed ceiling above the original altar of St. Mary's. This decor was removed when the church was enlarged to nearly double its size in 1931.

According to tradition, Jamesville was home to one of the first Christian settlements in western New York. In 1666, French Jesuits came to the Jamesville area at the request of Garakontie, an Onondaga chieftain, who wanted them to repair his village, teach the natives the arts and sciences, and to "civilize and Christianize" them. On the Butternut Creek, about one mile south of Jamesville, they built a small chapel where the priests performed the Mass and the sacraments. Spanish settlers joined the expanding village three years later, but disagreements between the Europeans and the natives led to the massacre of all the French Jesuits and Spanish settlers on All Saint's Day, 1669.

Over 150 years later, in 1835, James McGough and his wife began a second Catholic migration to the Jamesville area, this time from Ireland. They were joined by many other Irish families over the next twenty-five years and together created the parish of St. Mary’s. The first Mass was celebrated by Fr. James O’Reilly at the home of Daniel Quinlan in 1868. Mass was said at the Quinlan house and in the public halls of Jamesville for the next thirty years.

In 1898 the parish began making plans to erect the first Catholic Church building in Jamesville. Daniel Quinlan donated the land to the west of his house and the Gorman Brothers construction firm were hired for the project.

The church building was finished in 1899; the first Mass was celebrated in April 1899. Bishop P.A. Ludden dedicated the church September 1899.

The new church seated 216 and had a domed ceiling above the altar which was elaborately decorated with angels and a huge human eye at the center. The artist who painted the ceiling was an immigrant who also had been commissioned to do frescos at the penitentiary.

The total cost of the church building was $3499, and funds were raised at a “Fair and Festival” held on May 25, 1898. Tickets for the fair were only sold to “people of respectability,” as it was printed on the tickets, and as the records show, that included Catholics and non-Catholics from Jamesville and donors from the Catholic parishes in Syracuse, LaFayette, Fayetteville, and Pompey. $564.13 was raised at the fair. More money was raised at ice cream socials held at parishoners’ homes and at chicken and biscuit dinners at the church, which were made possible by the donation of chickens, flour, and potatoes by the farmers who belonged to St. Mary’s.

In 1838, there were 38 households who belonged to St. Mary’s. Due to the influx of more Catholics who moved to Jamesville to work for Solvay Process and Alpha Portland Cement, St. Mary’s decided to expand in 1931. The expansion began on October 28, 1931, when construction crews waited for the end of Agnes Mueller and William Momper’s wedding to remove the wall behind the altar to make room for the addition. After the expansion, the church doubled in size.

Parish families donated the beautiful stained glass memorial windows in the church, which serve as an historic record of the many early families in the church, from 1931-1933. The side entrance on Quinlan Avenue was added twenty-five years later.

Pastors who have served St. Mary's
(For additions, corrections, and clarifications please e-mail garrison202@yahoo.com)

Early 1868 to 1892	Rev. James O’Reilly
1892 to ?	Rev. Patrick Donohoe
? to June 1894	Rev. W. J. Early
June 1894 to January 1912	Rev. Michael Joyce
January 1912 to June 1926	Rev. Patrick J. Sloan
June 1926 to March 1932	Rev. Lawrence J. Horan
March 1932 to September 1957	Rev. Vincent O’Connor
September 1957 to November 1962	Rev. George Arseneau
November 1962 to June 1968	Rev. Aloysius V. Jankowski
June 1968 to May 1970	Rev. Joseph L. Mulroney
May 1970 to October 1970	Rev. Paul A. Brigandi
October 1970 to 1977	Rev. John J. Conway
1977 - 1981	Rev. Monsignor William Taylor
1981 - 1995	Rev John J. Daley
July 1995 - ??	Rev. Raymond B. Wood

Early Irish settler families in Jamesville (1840 – 1860)

Dennis Bowes	John Carey	Peter Logan	Bernard McManomie
Michael Bowes	Dennis Corcoran	Michael Maher	Daniel Miller
John Brady	Andrew Crone	Joseph Mara	Daniel Quinlan
Edmond Burke	J. K. Doyle	John Martin	Michael Quirk
James Burke	Jacob Gross	Eugene McCarthy	James Ryan
Patrick Burke	Michael Howard	James McGough, Jr.	Bryan Trainor
Thomas Burns	James Kennedy	Michael McGowan	Edward Welch

People who attended the first mass in Jamesville (1868)

William Bamerick	Peter Cole	William Lyons	James McGough
Mrs. John Bellen	John Crowley	Joseph Mara	John McGough
Ellen Bigley	Edward Cummings	Michael Mara	Patrick McGough
Dennis Bowes	Michael Cummings	Callaghan McCarthy	Arthur Murphy
Dennis Carey	Anna Dempsey	Jeremiah McCarthy	Daniel Quinlan
John Carey	Thomas Gleason	Michael McDonald

Founding members of St. Mary's Church (1898)

George Ball	William Burke	Anna Hurlehy	Joseph O’Farrell
William Bamerick	J. Burns, Jr.	M. Maher	J. Olcott
H. J. Birchmeyer	Margaret Costello	Mrs. G. McDermott	Daniel Quinlan
S. Birchmeyer	John Crowley	Callaghan McCarthy	Dennis Quinlan
Daniel Bowes	William Crowley	Thomas McCarthy	John D. Quinlan
Dennis F. Bowes	William Flynn	John McGough	Dennis Ryan
John J. Bowes	Timothy Gorman	P. McGuiness	James Ryan
William H. Brown	T. B. Grace	Daniel Miller	Edward Welch
Thomas Bryan	J. J. Griffin	James Moran
Patrick Burke	M. J. Hogan	D. J. O’Donnell