St. Anne's parish was founded in Waterbury in 1886 for the city's French-Canadian Catholic immigrants, and starting in 1888 the parish held French-language services inside a small wooden church. It wasn't long before the congregation began saving up for a nicer, larger church.
The parish was in a working-class neighborhood, so fund raising was slow. But that didn't stop them. St. Anne's church began construction in 1906 and finished in 1922. The massive gothic-style sanctuary, made of granite and marble and marked by twin spires and a dome, has been one of the architectural glories of Waterbury ever since.
"Those years were years of trial and hardship. Pastors died after a few years, and then World War I came," said Dr. Ruth Glasser, curator of a new exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum. "They just kept doing special collections at Masses. This church was literally built on the nickels and dimes of its congregation."
Glasser came to the Mattatuck as a consulting historian, and wound up curating "In the Shadow of St. Anne's," a historical look back at the church and the immigrant population that created and sustained it for decades. "I've been immersed in this for so long I feel like an honorary French-Canadian," Glasser said.
Through historical artifacts donated by parishioners, explanatory text and artist's renderings, the exhibit tells the story of the church that served Quebecois newcomers, who were attracted to the industrial jobs in the Brass City after their agricultural jobs disappeared at home.
Glasser said the parish is historically significant for its insistence on foreign-language services.
"They were the first non-English speaking significant ethnic group to demand services in their own language," she said. "They broke the ground for the existence of ethnic churches, demanding not just services but also priests from their own culture.
"All their lives, French had looked down on them. Belgians had looked down on them. Why should they let anyone else look down on them?" she said. "They refused to settle for less. They fought to keep their Canadian culture alive in a hostile environment."
Glasser explained that after the Civil War, French-Canadians were treated much like Hispanic immigrants are today, "people saying 'why don't you speak English?' and all that."
"They felt overlooked in the American immigrant historical narrative that emphasized people from Europe," Glasser said.
The exhibit not only includes artifacts from the church, but family photos, working tools, sewing supplies, schoolbooks, packing trunks, quilts, naturalization papers, a violin and other items.
The flood of 1955 and the building of I-84 fractured the ethnic community, as well as urban renewal — which saw buildings torn down but nothing comparable built in their place — intermarriage and suburbanization. Today, St. Anne's is in a struggling neighborhood.
"As a community, we need to find ways to revitalize the neighborhood," Glasser said. "We're exploring different paths on how to do that."
'Mythology And Magic'
The sculptures by Mara Sfara at the Mattatuck are easy to miss by people zooming up the stairs. But those who stop on the landing and look out the windows will be delighted by the sculpture-strewn rooftop, where humorous scenes are adapted from the Greek mythology.
Sfara, of Farmington, puts a fun spin on the classic stories. "There's Adonis. Every man wants to be Adonis, but this Adonis is exhausted and crooked. It's hard to be Adonis," she said, pointing to one fire at the center of the sculpture array. "And Alexandra, protector of mankind, isn't doing a very good job. She's pigeon-toed and shell-shocked."
The small bronze-and-patina sculptures — of angels, mermaids, Proteus, Aphrodite — acting out classic dramas could be interpreted as a commentary on contemporary society. "It's a mess, isn't it?" Sfara said. "People are going in all different directions. We don't have too much control over things. We're trying to do the best we can."
"IN THE SHADOW OF ST. ANNE'S: THE LIFE OF A CHANGING COMMUNITY" will be at Mattatuck Museum, 144 W. Main St. in Waterbury, until Sunday, Oct. 21. A program of French-Canadian music will be offered by fiddler Daniel Boucher et Ces Bons Amis on Thursday, Aug. 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission to that is $15, $7 members.
"MARA SFARA: MYTHOLOGY AND MAGIC" will be at the museum until Sunday, Sept. 9. Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $5, $4 seniors, members and children younger than 16 free. Details: http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org.
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