St. Rita Parish History

On September 9, 1923, a small brown wooden church building a few miles east of Portland, Oregon, was consecrated and dedicated to the recently canonized Saint Rita of Cascia -- and the parish of Saint Rita Catholic Church found its first home.
It wasn't exactly the beginning of Saint Rita parish, though. That came months earlier, when the pastor of Saint Rose of Lima Church in northeast Portland, Rev. J.M. O'Farrell, saw the need for a new parish beyond the eastern border of Portland, among the new housing developments with names like Maywood Park and Parkrose Estates.
So Father O'Farrell set to work establishing the new mission parish. On August 15, 1923, the parish marked its first baptism, when Barbara Veronica Skelley was christened at home.
But by then, the effort to build a mission chapel was well underway. The new parishioners -- many of them Italian and Irish immigrants, including families with nearby farms -- had raised almost $4,500 (equivalent to about $80,000 in 2023) and purchased land at the corner of Prescott Street and Craig Road (known today as 102nd Avenue).
Parishioners cleared the land, using a team of horses to pull out the large fir stumps. The basement was dug, concrete was mixed and poured, and walls were framed and nailed into place with help from Father O'Farrell himself.
Inside, the walls were plastered and painted. Plumbing, wiring and light fixtures were installed, along with pews, the altar, the communion rail, a few small stained-glass windows, and the new statue of Saint Rita.
With the chapel scrubbed until it shone and the handmade altar linens in place, the new church was ready.
And on a bright September Sunday morning, with more than 100 parishioners present, Portland Archbishop Alexander Christie blessed and dedicated the church to Saint Rita who had been canonized in 1900 as the "Saint of the Impossible."