St. Mary of Redford parish was established in 1843. The current church and parish plant are located on Grand River and Mansfield (just east of Greenfield). The school, however, was not established until 1919, while Fr. John Gilmary Cook was pastor. The 1929 yearbook (above), was called the Gilmarian, I presume, as a tribute to Fr. Cook. Later the name of the yearbook was changed to the Rustic, the name of St. Mary's sports teams. As my mother's family lived in St. Mary's (my mother, Ruth Coffey Butler, and her two older siblings, Jim Coffey and Betty Coffey graduated from the high school), I know something about the Rustic name. Grand River and Greenfield was considered far out west back in the early days of St. Mary's and a Rustic is defined as a "simple, rural person". The parish bulletin is named "The Tractor".
My parents were married at St. Mary's in 1947, and though the parish schools are now closed (the high school in 1985), the parish complex remains a truly beautiful set of buildings, and a gem on Detroit's northwest side.
The 1929 Gilmarian can be found on Classmates.com, here, and a reprint of the 1962 Rustic, on Amazon, here.
I would like information on Mother Of Our Savior which was a chapel church of St. Mary Redford until 1959.
I have some info but would like to find out more.
Thanks
Posted by: Joseph McCauley | 07/10/2012 at 10:55 PM
This is a great site. I have enjoyed my browse here very much. With regards to SMR High School it closed in the spring of 1992.
Sam Aldridge
aldridge1497@comcast.net
Posted by: Sam Aldridge | 11/20/2012 at 04:48 PM