By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

FORT LAUDERDALE — A legacy as rich and relevant to the South Florida region as that of St. Anthony Parish merits a serious historical book written and researched in a serious manner.  

And that’s exactly what the parish received this year in connection with the 90th anniversary of its establishment in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Father Jerry Singleton, pastor, collaborated with two members of the community to produce a coffee-table book, “Pioneer Parish – the history of Saint Anthony, Broward’s first Catholic Church.”

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

From left to right: retired journalists and newspaper editors Bruce and Judy Borich with Chauncy Mabe, who together produced the 90th anniversary book, "Pioneer Parish: Saint Anthony, Broward's first Catholic Church."

“The book shows the ties between (the parish) and the development of the city of Fort Lauderdale, buying land, raising money for Holy Cross Hospital, building what is now St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and a black Catholic mission on the other side of town called Annunciation and which closed in the 1950s,” said Judy Borich, a retired photojournalist whose company, Middle River Press in Oakland Park, designed and printed the book.

“Blacks were not allowed on this side of the tracks,” she said.

Borich also did much of the research, delving into old photos and clippings from the communications archives of the Archdiocese of Miami.

The parish struggled with anti-Catholic “nativism” in its early days, as well as economic and natural catastrophes that beset the area. The Adrian Dominican Sisters left their mark as well by staffing the school.
Prominent alumni of the parish school include former U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw Jr., tennis star Chris Evert, the late football player Brian Piccolo, former U.S. District Judge William J. “Bill” Zloch, mystery writer Michael Connelly and former Boston Red Sox catcher Mike Stanley.

Having presided at many funerals in recent years for longtime parishioners, Father Singleton encouraged the book project in order to capture the memories of those who are still alive, according to Borich.

“We wanted to get these memories before they were gone,” she said, adding that the church and school are located in Victoria Park, an “old area, an area of transition in Lauderdale. Now it is a very upscale region.”

Also contributing to the book was Chauncy Mabe, a former book editor at the Sun Sentinel newspaper who interviewed over 40 parishioners, religious sisters who taught there, students who grew up to be religious or famous people and other former parishioners. Their personal stories are interwoven with the greater history of the area.

“It was an important institution for the entire community and these are the kinds of things that can be lost over the passage of time,” said Mabe, who was on hand Nov. 5 for the parish anniversary party. “I think it is great that the church has a desire to capture whatever history it could at this time before it got lost.”

Catholics at St. Anthony quietly persevered in the face of some harsh bigotry in the early days, and through hard work and diligence they were able to win over the larger community, Mabe said. “In less than 20 years they started to get positive press from the forerunner of the Sun Sentinel newspaper which was a source of anti-Catholicism in Broward County.”

Parishioner Bernard McCormick, himself a local publisher who has grandchildren at St. Anthony School, wrote in his weekly column that the two-year effort behind the book resulted in an excellent product.

“The photography and graphics, a combination of old-time stuff and contemporary shots, are an artistic contribution to the historical record of South Florida,” McCormick said.

The book, he noted, “has a happy ending, as such books should, with a description of the renewal of downtown Fort Lauderdale and the east side neighborhoods which feed St. Anthony School.”