Francis McFarland’s new property on Farmington Avenue is for a new cathedral after all

The chapel will be constructed in a way that it will form a part of the future cathedral.

This is the earliest reference so far found to the Cathedral of Saint Joseph.

Relative to the Courant’s correction of yesterday’s article, “[w]e now have the facts from an official source.”

1. Francis McFarland bought a house in Hartford on July 22, 1871.
2. On August 3, 1871, the Courant reported on a plan to divide the Diocese of Hartford into separate dioceses covering Connecticut and Rhode Island.

1. Priests in the Diocese of Hartford presented McFarland with a gift that covered most of the debt on his purchase of a residence on the corner of Collins and Woodland Streets.
2. A cornerstone would be laid for the new convent on May 18, 1873.

Unattributed.  “The cathedral,” Hartford Daily Courant, August 6, 1872, page 2.