A Roman Catholic Church
3900 Meadow Drive Rolling Meadows, IL  60008
847-394-8100 Fax 394-8102
History of St. Colette Church

Our Beginnings

In late winter 1956, Father James Halpin, an Associate Pastor at St. Bride's Church on Chicago's South Side was called into the office of Msgr. Thomas Friel, the pastor.  They discussed the tentative plans they had for the following year when Father Halpin would celebrate his 25th anniversary as a priest.  At the same time, a group of about 10 people went down to the Chancery Office and requested an interview with Samuel Cardinal Stritch asking that a new parish be established in the fledgling town of Rolling Meadows.  The Cardinal was not in, but the request was given to him.  The group enhanced its request with a signed petition several months later.
Cardinal Stritch responded by examining the growing area of Rolling Meadows.  On June 25, 1957, he appointed Father Halpin to form a new parish in Rolling Meadows.  Father Halpin drove out to take a look at his new parish and got lost.  It was a long way from St. Bride's, and his only concrete directions were that it was near Arlington Park Race Track.
At the time, there were only country roads and rolling farmland.  He realized the job ahead, but he was happy to assume these new responsibilities.  His immediate concern was a place to stay.   He rented a motel room and stayed there on weekends until he was able to make arrangements for a place to say mass and to live.  He contacted School District 15 and was allowed to use the Salk School gymnasium, now our Senior center for $25 per Sunday.

Gathering to Worship

Father Halpin celebrated the first masses there on Sunday, July 14, 1957.  Some of his new parishioners constructed a portable altar, which Father used for these first masses.  Chairs were loaned from funeral homes in Arlington Heights.
Many parishioners remember those first masses.  Some were a little hesitant to attend since they had been parishioners at Our Lady of the Wayside in neighboring Arlington Heights.  They were very active in working for that parish since Wayside's church had been erected two years earlier.
Others who had been involved in the petition for their own parish were very grateful that the Cardinal had granted their request.  During these early Masses, Father apologized to his new parishioners for teh inconvenience they were enduring.  He told them they would have to work hard to establish their new parish.  There were 500 families when Father arrived.
One of our original parishioners remembered Father's sermon on that July morning.  Father said that as he drive through the streets of Rolling Meadows for the first time, he decided the wealth of the community was in its children.
One parishioner remembers there were 90 children under the age of 12 on her one block alone.  The enrollment figures at Our Lady of the Wayside school verify the great number of children in Rolling Meadows.  In August 1957, there were 300 children from Rolling Meadows enrolled there -- 112 in the first grade.
Just like all pioneers to Rolling Meadows, Father went to Kimball Hill & Associates and contacted a salesman about purchasing a home.  There was a basic Rolling Meadows basement home at 3003 Grouse Lane for sale, and since it was so close to Salk School, Father purchased it for $15,000 and moved in on July 1.
Since Father had been closely connected with the Poor Clare nuns in Chicago, whose reformer was St. Colette, he request that the name for our parish be St. Colette Parish.  The Cardinal granted Father's request and canonically established St. Colette parish, appointing Father Halpin pastor on August 27, 1957.

Formal Beginnings

St. Colete Parish formally began:
  • A cut-off from Our Lady of the Wayside in Arlington Heights;
  • A cut-off from St. James, founded over 90 years ago;
  • A cutoff of St. Mary in Des Plaines, St. Mary founded in the 19th century;
  • Eventually tracing our roots back to Chicago, the diocese of Vincennes in Indiana;
  • Baltimore Maryland, the first diocese in the United States