In the early days of Rogers Park, the few Catholics had two alternatives for Sunday Mass: St. Henry Church at Ridge and Devon and St. Mary’s in Evanston. In 1893 when a committee approached the pastor of St. Mary’s to ask if he might send a priest to say Mass in Rogers Park on Sundays. Plans were drawn, property acquired, and a little wooden church dedicated to St. Jerome, which was quickly constructed at Morse and Paulina. The appointment of the first pastor was not until May of 1895, Fr. Arthur Lonergan. The History of St. Jerome Parish quickly became a story of growth, as the needs of the booming population were served with a school, and several expansions. Nonetheless, St. Jerome Parish continued to grow as the population of Catholics increased. In the late 1960s, there were more than 9,000 parishioners and more than 3,000 registered families. The English speaking community, a rainbow of races and ethnic backgrounds, and a mixture of longtime residents who attend English language Masses on the weekdays and on Saturday morning and afternoon and on Sunday mornings.
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