By Rita McInerney

It will be a time for rejoicing, memories and expectation when St. Peter’s church in LaGrange celebrates its 50th anniversary April 26-29. After that the next big celebration for the parish will be the consecration of a new church on the six-acre tract where the huge Calumet Plant of Milliken Mills once stood.

While plans are being completed for the golden anniversary at the small church at Battle and Church streets, the wrecking crew is demolishing the three old buildings on the mill site at Lafayette Parkway and Morgan St., just five blocks away. One of the busiest corners in town, LaFayette Parkway (Route 109) is a five-lane highway while Morgan Street is slated to be widened to five lanes. The site is just about a block from the town square.

A larger church is needed, according to Father Joseph F. Ware, pastor since 1978. The growth rate of the church is averaging 71/2 percent annually compared to the 5 percent growth rate of other denominations in town. Young families are a large part of the parish and many are newcomers to the area. The influx of industry in LaGrange includes Kimberly Clark, which built a $130 million plant for the manufacture of paper hospital gowns and related products a few years ago, and Hughes Georgia Inc., a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft. A Chamber of Commerce employee says 50 major industries are located in the city, seat of Troup County.

The county serves Meriwether and Heard counties as well as Troup with most of the 300 families living in LaGrange or West Point.

The mill was officially turned over to St. Peter’s last November, Father Ware said, with the deed of the property, valued at $1,350,000, mailed to the pastor from Milliken and Co. headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C. A short time later, he and two members of the committee presented the deed, wrapped as a Christmas gift, to Archbishop Thomas Donnellan.

(An article by Gretchen Keiser in the April 25, 1985 issue of the Georgia Bulletin detailed how the parish acquired the mill property through the efforts of John Parkins, a parishioner who is an executive with Milliken.)

Now, after awarding the demolition contract to the firm which offered $2,500 for materials in addition to tearing down the buildings for nothing, (the best of three bids), the ground is pitted with craters where the ground floor used to be, and littered with bricks and beams. Dust is everywhere and has dulled the glistening leaves on the magnolia trees defining the perimeters will be saved and will serve as a buffer between the church property and the railroad tracks.

The once-massive mill, its original section built in 1950 and an annex added in 1935, outlived its usefulness several years ago. What was once a familiar landmark in LaGrange, as were its counterparts in Fall River, Mass., and other mill cities in the south and northeast, has surrendered its red brick dignity to the wrecking ball. Gone, also, is the small brick building on the corner of the property, said to have been built in 1830. Some local historians wanted to save, according to Father Ware, because it was believed to have been used to care for Civil War wounded. But no documentation could be found authenticating this claim.

Father Ware says preliminary site plans for the new parish complex were approved a few weeks ago by the archdiocesan building committee. Now the parish awaits permission from the finance committee to hire an architect. The preliminary plans call for the building of an octagonally-shaped church seating approximately 480 people. A parish hall, education building and rectory complete the initial building phase. The pastor estimated the cost for the building would be $1.6 million. With the furnishings, cost is expected to reach $2 million.

It is hoped that the present church, parish hall, religious education building and rectory, crowded together on a small plot, will bring $250,000 when sold. The committee for the disposal of the property is headed by Alfred Mansour, a member of one of the founding families of half a century ago. The once residential neighborhood is almost completely commercial now. The bank next door provides parking for parishioners after banking hours and on Sunday. A glass office building is slated to be built across the street where a large converted home now holds lawyers’ offices. A small white clapboard synagogue on another corner is empty except for once or twice a year when a rabbi comes from Atlanta for services.

Many of the parishioners working on the committees for the new church were recruited when the pastor put a box in the church vestibule for the names of volunteers. A number are in construction or interior design and have expertise to contribute to the planning.

Father Ware is hoping to start a fund drive for the building project in late April. Two other congregations in town, the Baptists and Presbyterians, are already in the midst of new construction.

Among parishioners who will be involved in building for the second time in 50 years is Miss Nannie Valeri, who remembers when some of the Catholics in LaGrange used to travel to the Shrine of the immaculate Conception in Atlanta for Sunday Mass. Occasionally, a visiting priest would celebrate Mass at the home of Mrs. Charles Sutherland.

Among the Catholics in LaGrange at that time were Mrs. Charles Traylor and Mrs. Lillian Wagner, daughter of Joel Chandler Harris, the Atlanta journalist and author who wrote the “Uncle Remus” stories.

“We had Masses sometimes at the Tuggles (he was a judge) and other times at the Wagners.” She remembers that a Father Quillian used to come down from Atlanta to say the Masses.

Miss Valeri lives in the family home about a block away from church and can see the property from her living room window. She remembers how badly the small group of Catholics, about 10 families, wanted their own church. “What happened those days I’ll never forget.”

She says the church was finally realized with a grant from the Extension Society and a $5,000 gift from one family. The anonymous family donor asked that the church be named St. Peter’s, according to the “Documentary of Catholicism in Troup, Meriwether and Heard Counties” issued in September, 1969 when the enlarged and renovated church was rededicated by Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan.

Miss Valeri was one of the group of women meeting once a week to make the priest’s vestments, starting with a set of rose-colored vestments for Laetare Sunday. Actually, the color of the vestments was more of a pale pink than rose, she says. She still makes altar linens and vestments and is in charge of the altar flowers.

(Among parish groups mentioned in the 1969 Documentary was the Altar Society which was organized by Father James E. King, pastor of St. Joseph’s, Athens, while LaGrange was still a mission of the church in Athens. The publication notes: “The members of the Altar society are especially proud of the altar linens of the church. In addition to her many other contributions of service, these linens have been the product of the talent, artistry and industry of Miss Nannie Valeri throughout the life of the church.”)

A memory Miss Valeri treasures is the wedding of her sister Adelaide, the first in the new Catholic church. “The church was full and a lot of friends, non-Catholics, looked in through the windows to see what a Catholic wedding was like.”

Miss Valeri is delighted with the influx of parishioners from all over the country. “We have some real good workers from up north with all the new industries coming into town. What’s their loss (the north) is our gain,” she said.

All the parishioners, members of the founding families and their children, and the newcomers will join in the 50th anniversary events. A buffet dinner for the adults on Saturday, April 25 at the Moose Club will open the celebration and a family picnic on the church grounds on Sunday, April 27 will be a fun celebration for all. The deceased priests and parishioners of St. Peter’s will be remembered at a requiem Mass on Monday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m., while Archbishop Donnellan will be the principal celebrant at a con-celebrated Mass at the closing event on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. A reception for parishioners and guests will follow.

LaGrange was originally part of the Athens Mission Territory which stretched from South Carolina to Alabama, across north central Georgia and encompassing the LaGrange-West Point area. In the 1930s, Father King began erecting churches within the boundaries of this territory. The first was St. Michael’s in Gainesville, the second was St. Peter’s.

The church property was purchased for $875 in 1935. Father Michael McInery of Belmont Abbey in North Carolina was architect for the church. After the structure was competed it was dedicated by Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara of the Diocese of Savannah on April 25, 1936. A reception followed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jabaley.

Among honored guests at the dedication were Mrs. Sutherland and Miss Valeri, several Protestant ministers of LaGrange, and J.J. Haverty and Miss Mae Haverty of Atlanta. The Havertys contributed furnishings for the room in the church that was used by the priest before the rectory was built.

Father George T. Daly was appointed first pastor of the parish by Bishop O’Hara. First acolytes assigned by the new pastor were Georgia Mansour and Hugh Marshall.

Former pastors of the church include Msgr. Donald Kiernan, Msgr. John F. McDonough, Father Joseph Beltran and Father Edward O’Connor.