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About the authors: Father and son, Bill Alfano Sr. and Bill Alfano Jr., are longtime parishioners of Our Lady of the Wayside parish. Bill Jr. is an usher and Bill Sr. is a member of the choir.
By Bill Alfano Sr. and Bill Alfano Jr.
Our story begins shortly after the turn of the century in 1900. The village of Searsville and the little church of St. Dennis were gone. The Catholic residents of Portola were looking for a nearby place to attend Sunday Mass. Rural life centered on the land that surrounds the site of the church today.
According to most versions of the story, Mamie Shine Byrnes, a teacher at Portola, approached Father McKinnon of Menlo Park in 1902 requesting a closer place to hear Mass. The Catholic Church purchased a dance hall, a rough redwood building called Portola Hall, that they could convert into a chapel.
The dance hall was moved across Portola Road to today’s site of Our Lady of the Wayside. The little building was whitewashed and christened St. Catherine’s. It was modest and bitterly cold in winter, but it was convenient for the residents of the then remote valley.
In 1911, Father George Lacombe was assigned to travel from Menlo Park on Sundays to say Mass. This priest was an exceptional man — highly intelligent, well educated, warm and enthusiastic about life. He loved card games, good conversations over good dinners, and sports of all kinds, especially baseball.
One Sunday, during the celebration of Mass, Father Lacombe was startled by the sound of gunfire. After the service he walked across the field to the 90-acre Family Farm, a retreat for the private San Francisco men’s club known as The Family. The gunfire seemed to originate from that site.
There he found members blasting clay disks on the skeet range. He asked the club to fix a time when he could say Mass without interfering with the sport.
Embarrassed, the shooters asked the young priest to dinner that evening. That was the beginning of a long friendship. That dinner became a regular weekly event. During that summer Father Lacombe was initiated into The Family as “Steve.”
The chapel congregation in those days was small and made of transient workers who went elsewhere to seek work in winter. Father Lacombe made his regular plans to discontinue Masses there during winter. He would be serving full-time at his church in Menlo Park.
At a final dinner with The Family, one member, a judge in San Francisco and active in Jewish philanthropies, suggested that they build “Steve” a regular church. He made a proposal: “Suppose you Catholics and Protestants pass the hat around and see what you can raise. We Jews will double that amount.”
A chorus of voices joined in instant agreement. A hat was passed around and was soon full of large bills and even larger checks.
Two architects threw dice to determine which would have the honor of creating the design. James Miller, who won the right to design the new church, assigned Timothy Pflueger, a young member of his staff, to prepare plans. Timothy used Mission Dolores as his inspiration, creating the harmonious blend of mission and Georgian styles we see today.
The cornerstone was laid on May 5, 1912, during a Mass of celebration held among the redwood trees. The construction of the new church became a cooperative venture. Family members of all faiths continued to help. Various people donated the cement, the lumber, the tile floor and roof, the altar, statues, Stations of the Cross, and the shrine. One financed the painting. Others worked on the landscaping.
Many others contributed to the building of the church. Bridget Doyle gave her life savings for the bells and local people excavated the creeks by hand for gravel. It was hauled to the construction site by horse-drawn wagons.
Archbishop Riordan dedicated the new church on Sept. 29, 1912, in a joyous ceremony.
On July 1, 1941, Archbishop John J. Mitty proclaimed the establishment of Our Lady of the Wayside Parish. (Before that, it had been a mission church in the St. Aloysious Parish.) Also in 1941, a priest house was built next to the church for the pastor and associate priest.
On July 6, 1941, the Rev. Edmund I. Hogan was installed as the first pastor. He would serve until 1945.
The Rev. John E. Meehan, who was pastor from 1945 to 1951, succeeded Father Hogan. The Rev. Guy B. Hayden served from 1951 to 1966.
In the 1950s, four acres of land was donated by the late Marcella Fox for the construction of a mission church in Woodside. The Mission of St. Marcella was established in 1954, and the building was dedicated on Dec. 14, 1958. The mission was assigned to the Our Lady Of Wayside Parish.
In 1966 Father Hayden completed his tenure as pastor. Over the next six years there would be four pastors: The Rev. John J. Cunningham from 1966 to 1969, the Rev. Eugene F. Duggan from 1969 to 1970, the Rev. James J. Ward from 1970 to 1972, and then the Rev. George Thomas from 1972 to 1994.
Father Thomas, who was pastor emeritus until 2006, would serve a total of 34 years, by far the longest tenure of any pastor. His service would result in a very strong, loving, and faithful community. There are many cases of Father Thomas dropping everything to minister to someone in need.
In 1977 the state of California presented a plaque recognizing Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church as a historical monument (#909). The church stands today as a monument to the ecumenical efforts of The Family, the unity of the parishioners, and gracious cooperation of residents in Portola Valley, Woodside and surrounding communities.
After the 1989 earthquake, it was determined that the church was not up to earthquake code. It was closed for a couple of years as a drive was launched to raise money to rebuild the church. Enough was raised to establish an endowment fund for the parish.
Construction began in early 1992 and was completed by October. The church was reopened in November 1992 and rededicated in January 1993.
In late 1994 the archdiocese declared that the Mission of St. Marcella would be closed and the land sold. Our Lady Of Wayside would become a mission church administered by the St. Denis Parish.
These actions did not end the community’s spirit. The St. Marcella women’s guild continued to operate as the auxiliary to the St. Francis Center in Redwood City, an organization that helps the needy in east Redwood City.
The people of Our Lady Of The Wayside have continued to come together as a community Saturday evening at 5:15 and Sunday morning at 9:30. The people have continued to support the church with their faith, spirit, and resources.
Sources: “Valley Spirit helped launch Our Lady of the Wayside Chapel,” The Country Almanac, Jan. 7, 1996, by Nancy Lund. “Flight Mass in Portola Sunday,” Palo Alto Times, Aug. 30, 1969, by James McNabb Jr. “Mission for Woodside,” The Monitor, Dec. 12, 1958.
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As a young teenager I had the job of “gatekeeper” for the Mission of St. Marcella. That entailed unlocking the chain leading to the Mission on Sunday at 7:00 am and then locking it after the 11:00 Mass. I received $5.00 a month the for this service. I was very saddened to hear about the church being sold. I think it is terrible when one donates four acres and a beautiful place of worship to the Church and then the archdioceses turns around and sells it. I think the money should have been returned to the estate of Marcella Fox.