{"id":485,"date":"2023-04-20T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T02:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/?p=485"},"modified":"2023-04-20T20:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T02:09:01","slug":"st-josephs-roman-catholic-church-cohoes-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/st-josephs-roman-catholic-church-cohoes-ny\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Cohoes, NY"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Joseph’s Catholic Church was founded in 1868\u00a0 to serve the FrancoAmerican textile workers and services sector in Cohoes.\u00a0 Prior to that time, FrancoAmericans attended Catholic services at the Irish, St. Bernards.\u00a0 Attending services in French was a very big deal to the Franco community. Elizabeth Bissonnette’s family gave their share to help build it.<\/p>\n

This was the church where John Albert Wills and Elizabeth Bissonnette stood on August 26th, 1903 and promised to be husband and wife.\u00a0 He promised to raise their children in the Catholic Church but would not, himself, convert.\u00a0 He was 29, she was 23 years old.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>This was the church my aunts and uncles were baptized in, where they made first communions and where they married.<\/p>\n

\"First
Etta (left) and Dorothy Wills making their first communion at St Joseph’s Church sometime in the 1920s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since 2009, St. Joseph’s has been permanently closed as a church although used as an event site. In 2008, I attended a church service there.\u00a0 It was probably one of the last Catholic services.\u00a0 While it was an event site, I was able to visit and attend some events there.\u00a0 I took photographs.<\/p>\n

The architecture of St. Joseph’s was similar to many other catholic Churches built in this period.\u00a0 Stripped of its ecclesiology adornments, it still remained a beautiful site maintaining its dignity whether empty or filled with community, voices, and sounds of its organ.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The exterior of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Cohoes 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The altar and baptismal font when the church was still a Catholic community<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The interior when the church functioned as an event site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Interior St. Joseph’s Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Joseph’s Catholic Church was founded in 1868\u00a0 to serve the FrancoAmerican textile workers and services sector in Cohoes.\u00a0 Prior to that time, FrancoAmericans attended Catholic services at the Irish, St. Bernards.\u00a0 Attending services in French was a very big deal to the Franco community. Elizabeth Bissonnette’s family gave their share to help build it. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Cohoes, NY”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[21,29],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-churches","category-https-francoamericangravy-com-wills-category-cohoes","tag-churches","tag-cohoes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t