Saint Margaret, New Castle

St. Margaret was founded in 1904 in what was then Mahoningtown, now part of New Castle.  Until the establishment of the parish, local Catholics had to travel to St. Mary, New Castle to attend Mass.  Occasionally the pastor of St. Mary traveled to Mahoningtown to celebrate Mass in a private home.  In 1904, a committee of Catholics rented a former one room school building to serve as a temporary church.  For two years, St. Margaret remained a mission church of St. Mary, but on October 6, 1906, a resident pastor was assigned to the parish. 

On June 28, 1914, the cornerstone was laid for a new church.  The church was completed later that year.  This church served the parish for the remainder of the century.  By 1993, the decline in population in New Castle and in the number of priests in the diocese made it obvious that it was no longer practical for St. Margaret to remain as an independent parish.  In that year, St. Margaret was merged with St. Lucy, St. Michael, Ss. Philip and James and Holy Cross, West Pittsburg to create the new St. Vincent de Paul Parish.  St. Margaret Church is no longer used as a house of worship in the new parish, but still stands and is used by the parish Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.