On October 19, 1904, Bishop Thomas Daniel Beaven decided to create a new church. The new church’s name was to be The Church of the Good Shepherd (Paroisse du Bon Pasteur). The new church would be comprised of the villages of North Uxbridge and Linwood; it would become the place of worship for the many families of French Canadian descent who came to the area to be employed in the area’s textile mills.
The first Mass was celebrated on Sunday, October 31, 1904 at the former Uxbridge and Northbridge Electric Company in Linwood, located at the end of Maple St. in Linwood. The services were held there until the church was built.
On December 12, 1904, James E. Whitin, president of the Uxbridge Cotton Mills, donated land to the new church. This property is where our church stands today. The first pastor, Rev. A. Henry Powers and parishioners held a meeting on March 31, 1905 and voted to build a new church on the donated land for less than $20,000. Architect Onesime E. Nault was hired to design the church. The church was to be built in the late Victorian Gothic style.
On July 6, 1905, groundbreaking for the new church was held. Mr. Frank Fredet
te and Mr. Treffle Dion, using granite from the Blanchard Bros. Quarry, constructed the foundation. On September 14, 1905, a signed agreement with contractors Dorias and Dupuis from Worcester was reached to build the new wooden church with a slate roof by July 15, 1906. The total cost was $19,110. On April 6, 1906 a gilded cross, 8 feet high, was placed on the tower of the new church. In July 1906, the first services were held in the basement of the new church.
This cache is placed in honor of 110 years of continuous church services here. There are several parking spaces located near the cache. Please no caching between the hours of 3pm and 6pm on Saturday and Sunday between 7am and noon. You do not need to enter the play yard to find this cache.