By Jeremy Walsh
Some things may have changed in Glendale over the last century, but the school at St. Pancras Church is still going strong.
Some 451 people attended the school’s centennial dinner dance celebration Nov. 1 at Russo’s on the Bay, including former teachers and alumni who graduated from the K−8 institution as long ago as 1936.
Lorraine Heinsohn of Garden City Park, L.I., is now 87 and believed to be the oldest living alumna. She said she was not surprised that her school lasted for a century.
“I felt it would last forever,” she said. “All my kids grew up there. They received all their sacraments there and their schooling and went onto bigger and better things.”
Another distinguished guest was Dominican Sister Rose Winifred, a former teacher at the school. “She’s 100 years young,” said the Rev. Vincent Gallo, pastor of St. Pancras. “She was kind of the poster girl. She was in a wheelchair. She came from Amityville, [L.I.,] where they have a retirement home for sisters there.”
Winifred is one of a long line of nuns from the order to teach at the school, which was founded in 1908 with the arrival of five Dominican nuns from Amityville.
As more and more students packed its classrooms, the church’s new pastor, Hermann Pfeifer, decided in 1930 to build a new home for the school. The Great Depression evidently had some effect on how rapidly the new school could be built, because it would be 20 years before construction started.
The church broke ground on the new school building at 68−20 Myrtle Ave. in 1950 after a building ban during World War II was lifted. The school had a brush with fame in 1982 when its choral group, the Choristers, sang at the Vatican for Pope John II, whom they subsequently met.
Principal Philip Ciani, a former public school principal who came to the school three years ago, praised the dedication of his staff.
“It’s been a pleasure,” he said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be here. The kids are great, parents are great, the community is great.”
But Catholic schools in Queens have struggled in recent years. In September, the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens shut down two schools in Hollis and Richmond Hill because of high student education costs and low populations.
St. Pancras’ student population, which hit 772 in 1951, is now 280, but still well above the level where the school would be considered at risk of closing.
Gallo said the numbers partly reflect the changing demographics of Glendale, which was an enclave of German immigrants when the church opened its doors in 1904 and gradually incorporated Irish and Italian families.
“Polish people are moving in from Greenpoint and Williamsburg,” he said. “Now we have a mass in Polish on Sunday, which we didn’t have a year ago.”
Changing demographics are only part of the equation, though. Gallo said some people have trouble affording the tuition, which runs around $3,000 a year.
Ciani said the school hopes to increase enrollment by stepping up marketing and trying to establish a scholarship fund to help the less affluent families who would like to send their children there.
“We can probably grow to 500 if we could get that many,” Ciani said. “We certainly have room.”
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e−mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 154.
