The Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity in Silver City, with the help of Georgia Bearup at United Country Mimbres Realty, and with the support of First New Mexico Bank and various donors, has purchased the remaining portion of the St. Mary’s property at 1801-1809 Alabama Street from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas. The property includes the chapel and attached convent, the Joseph House, and Marian Hall, and sits on a little over 3.7 acres near the northwest edge of Silver City.
The first Sisters of St. Joseph to serve in Silver City arrived in 1915 from Tipton, Indiana. They took over the Our Lady of Lourdes Academy from the Sisters of Mercy, and then in 1918 closed that school and opened St. Mary Magdalen’s Academy in what had been the Aubrey F. Lee house on the Alabama Street property. The neighboring Rufus Jackson home, built in 1910, became the dormitory for the school and was renamed Marian Hall. The chapel and convent were built in 1923 after the original school building burned down.
In 1926, the Silver City sisters merged with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas. The revitalized congregation of sisters continued to operate St. Mary’s Academy and would later staff St. Vincent de Paul School until 1973.
Over the years, numerous Sisters of St. Joseph have served in Silver City and Grant County as teachers and pastoral, youth and campus ministers. Today Sister Rosemary Farrell works as a play therapist at El Refugio and Sister Rita Plante is a volunteer chaplain at Gila Regional Medical Center.
During the 1990s, Marian Hall was the home of El Refugio and last spring the Guadalupe Montessori School purchased the school buildings on the hill behind the chapel.
The Anglicans have been worshiping in the chapel since May 2013 and are excited to now have a permanent home. Holy Trinity was founded in the fall of 2008 and previously met at the old Presbyterian Church, now The Church of Harmony, on Arizona and 7th Streets in downtown Silver City.
The Silver City Anglicans are now embarking on a fund raising drive to “Save St. Mary’s” as the buildings are in need of significant repairs and updating. Church members are most interested in contacting members of the community who were students at St. Mary’s or who have ties to the property and might be interested in helping with this project. You may contact the priest, Fr. Henry Hoffman at 313-5797, fatherhenryh@gmail.com, or P.O. Box 1233, Silver City, NM 88062, or Junior Warden, CarolBeth Elliott at 538-1430 or ellcbe@aim.com. Holy Trinity is a 501(c)(3) religious institution under the guidelines of the US Internal Revenue Code.
Holy Trinity is under the care of Bishop Win Mott, formerly of Mimbres, now living in Columbus. The church is a member of the Anglican Church in North America, which unites some 100,000 Anglicans in nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States and Canada into a single Church.
Holy Trinity welcomes people of all faiths and strives to accomplish Christ’s mission of proclaiming the Gospel and making followers of Jesus by supporting each other in their ministry through fellowship, church planting, youth ministry and regular venues for mutual edification in worship, Bible study and prayer. They share a love of Christ, his Church and the historic and traditional Anglican way of devotion. All are welcome to join them in worship every Sunday at 3:00pm in the chapel at 1801 Alabama Street.