By Michael Motes

Following an outdoor Mass at which Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan was principal concelebrant, a groundbreaking ceremony officially launched the construction of a new church building and parish center to serve the Catholics of Hall, Forsyth and Dawson Counties who make up St. Michael’s parish in Gainesville.

The site of the proposed building is a six-acre tract located on a sloping, wooded hillside at the corner of Pearce Circle and Enota Avenue in Gainesville.

Architect Jack Bailey of Welton Becket and Associates designed the new 12,000 square foot structure and it will be built by the Alaska Southern Construction Company. Landscape architect for the site is Dan G. Syfan.

The total cost of relocation of St. Michael’s is estimated at $323,000. The completion has been set for Easter 1974.

Over 500 people attended the Mass and groundbreaking ceremony, which was organized by Austin Edmonson.

In commenting on the new building, Father Thomas Kenny, pastor of St. Michael’s, said:

“This groundbreaking is but the climax of many years of hoping and planning together, of hard work and enthusiastic generosity. It is qualities such as those that will continue to blossom on this new soil.

“The feeling I have at this delightful gathering of the whole parish around Christ’s altar with the archbishop, is that the church of St. Michael’s is already here on this new site.

“Erecting the new building over us is but the next logical step.”