“Mount Carmel on Fly Street, please!” Do not these words ring familiarly to some of your ears? Can you not visualize a group of laughing, shouting, vigorous Italian children waiting for the “Sisters” to come? It is due to Father Schieder’s efforts that we have the children from 2:30 to 4:00 every Monday afternoon. The boys from the 5th to the 8th grade claim the basement as their classroom, while the babies have gone to the other extreme and now reside in the choir. This leaves the body of the Church free for the older girls, and the 3rd and 4th grades. This has been more than helpful, and although it is still awkward having two classes in church, it cannot be compared to the inconvenience of the past.” --From: 1942 “Chimes”
Some sisters may still recall the Italian (mainly Sicilian) parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It was located on the corner of Le Coutleux and Fly Streets in what was the Canal District of Buffalo. According to The Catholic Church in the United States of America, published in 1914, the parish was formed in 1906. By 1914 it was noted that the building was a combination church and living rooms for the clergy. The school had 709 pupils and “is in charge of the Sisters of St. Francis, 4 Sisters of Mercy (and) 2 lay teachers.” There were about 10,000 parishioners at the time and they were of “the poorer class of immigrants and less prosperous Italians as this church is at No 41 Fly Street on the lake front of the Canal Street district.” Another source notes that the church was “a religious and cultural center for the Italian community.” After a disastrous tenement explosion January 1, 1936, the neighborhood began to be “renewed” and over time was replaced by the current Marine Drive apartments, the Erie Basin Marina, the Naval Park, the I190, and the Skyway. The church, itself, was razed in 1949.
According to the records in our province archives, the Sisters of St. Francis staffed Mt. Carmel School from 1919 though 1934. The sister faculty members lived at Sacred Heart on Washington Street and included the following:
S. Adrian Zenovieff, 1932-33/34
S. Augusta Hoefling, 1928/29, 1933/34
S. Boniface Hufnagel, 1919/20, 1927-30/31
S. Carmelita Darius, 1919-1921/22
S. Carmina Dattalo, 1932-33/34
S. Erica Hughes, 1919-21/22
S. Florence Southall, 1928-30/31
S. Hugh Burns, 1919-21/22
S. Lea Flowers, 1922, 1923-33/34
Some years later sisters returned to the parish for religious education classes as noted in the excerpt above.