Longtime Levittowners Take In Demolition Of St. Joseph the Worker Parish

For the 53-year Levittown resident Frank and Margaret Dingman, the demolition of the St. Joseph the Worker Parish on New Falls Road in Falls Township is a sign of change in their neighborhood.

Frank Dingman used his scooter to travel down Thornridge Drive to the former parish to watch Tuesday afternoon as contractors took down the school and church building his family attended for decades.

“We feel very bad to see it go, but you have to move forward,” Margaret Dingman said.

She added that Frank and herself attended the St. Joseph the Worker parish since it was formed. Before the New Falls Road buildings were constructed, the family traveled between temporary worship sites at an elementary school and in an autobody shop.

“We went a long time until [St. Joseph the Worker] closed and now we’re at St. Frances Cabrini,” Margaret Dingman said. “We’re happy there.”

The Dingman’s said their new Catholic parish has welcomed them, and they don’t mind the 55-plus development developer John McGrath is working to bring to the 18-acre St. Joseph the Worker site.

The proposed community will include 62 townhouses, two two-story apartment buildings with 24 units, as well as 14 one-story flats. McGrath told the Falls Township Board of Supervisors last year that the townhomes and flats will be priced between $270,000 to $325,000.

At the parish, Margaret Dingman took part in bingo, helped with services and many of the other activities offered before the church merged with St. Frances Cabrini Parish in 2014 as part of consolidation efforts by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Her husband, took part in many activities, including a football league.

After about a year of sitting vacant, the St. Joseph the Worker Parish is being taken down piece by piece. Large pieces of construction equipment ripped down metal window frames and portions of the building. In a matter of days, the majority of the building will be gone.

Monsignor Michael P. McCormac, who serves as pastor of St. Frances Cabrini, said earlier this year that parish staff worked to remove the contents of the St. Joseph the Worker Parish and “painstakingly moved everything of spiritual, monetary and emotional value to a new home.”

Many statues, pews and other sacred Catholic objects found new homes and pews will help families “retell the story of St. Joseph the Worker Parish,” McCormac said.

The St. Joseph the Worker community was made up mainly of blue collar Levittowners, many of Irish heritage, at the time of its founding, former parishioners said.

For the Dingmans, their memories of their former church will last and they will move forward.

“You can’t stop progress,” Frank Dingman said.