Welcome to Our Lady of Grace

Loving God & Loving Others

History

Believing in God’s Word and Spirit

In 1906, the parish of Our Lady of Grace, Howard Beach, New York, was founded and staffed by the Monfort Fathers. At the turn of the last century, residents of Howard Beach would have to travel to Ozone Park in order to attend Mass at Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church. Due to a lack of better train schedules, they would often arrive late and leave early. The sympathetic pastor of Our Lady Gate of Heaven finally arranged for the first Mass to be celebrated in Howard Beach by forty people in a small bungalow donated by Frank Von Der Linn of Ramblerville in 1906. As the number of summer residents in Howard Beach steadily increased, the bungalow soon became too small to hold services.
In 1909 the residents of the region raised money for a chapel dedicated to Saint Louis Marie de Monfort, the holy founder of the Monfort Fathers, to be built on the property donated by Frank Von Der Linn. Despite being erected on high stilts with a boardwalk, the high tides could still rise over the boardwalk of the chapel, requiring the parishioners to arrive by boat. When sand was dredged from Jamaica Bay onto nearby marshes in 1912, the marsh land was raised above the tidal level and channels and canals deepened. This caught the attention of real estate developers and home construction began in earnest around the area.