Saint Mary Church

The first Catholic church in the Manchester area was built by German settlers in Freedom Township in 1839 and dedicated to Saint Francis de Borgia. In 1863 Father Edward Van Lauwe was appointed pastor of Saint Dominic in Clinton, and Manchester was one of his missions. In 1870 thirty-five Irish families built the Church of the Assumption on Macomb Street in Manchester. Father Edwin Fisher, pastor of Clinton and its missions, became resident pastor at Manchester in 1909. In 1911 local craftsmen built this Neo-Gothic-inspired church from fieldstones collected by farmers and salvaged from the foundation of the hotel that had stood on the site. It was dedicated in January 1912. Father Fisher designed the church and erected similar fieldstone churches at his missions in Blissfield, Tecumseh, and Brooklyn.