The St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Russian Aid Society of Allentown

Original St. Michael Greek Catholic Church
at Green St. & Ridge Ave.

Carpatho-Rusyns settled in Allentown, Lehigh County, in the late 1890s, but were not present in large numbers until around 1905. Two Greek Catholic parishes were founded in the Sixth Ward, in 1907-08 (St. Michael the Archangel), at Green Street and Ridge Avenue, and a Galician offshoot founded by Lemkos and Ukrainians in 1909-10 (St. Mary's Immaculate Conception) on Front & Furnace Streets, shortly thereafter building a church on Fullerton Avenue. This was a neighborhood largely made up of Central European immigrants, not just Carpatho-Rusyns and Galician Ukrainians, but also Slovaks, Poles, and Hungarians.

In the years to follow, Carpatho-Rusyns would also be involved in founding a short-lived Russian Orthodox parish (also named for St. Michael), and later an independent Greek Catholic parish (St. John the Baptist, on N. 2nd Street). That church eventually left the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese and joined the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic as St. Andrew Byzantine Catholic Church (the story behind this is an unfortunate one, the details of which I'll leave for my book); a portion of its members founded Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Orthodox Greek Catholic Church which established itself in a former synagogue at the prominent corner of North 6th and Tilghman Streets. Meanwhile, St. Mary's Immaculate Conception (Galician) Greek Catholic Church would lead a movement to establish a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the U.S. in the 1920s, and today the parish is known as St. Mary's, Protection of the Holy Theotokos Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Other than lodges of fraternal organizations like the Greek Catholic Union and the Russian Brotherhood Organization, the main Carpatho-Rusyn social organization in this community was the St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Russian Aid Society, founded in 1919. I knew about this group and its club building, but did not know its history. A few days ago I searched newspapers-dot-com to see what kind of articles there were about it. It yielded no less than 40 articles about the organization, many of which provide a very useful body of information on its history and activities. (I only wish the accompanying photos were better.)

For example, this article provides a few details of its founding.

The Morning Call, October 28, 1945

Also, this notice of application for a charter.

The Morning Call, June 13, 1919

Its members were Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants and their descendants. At the start, they were mainly members of St. Michael's Greek Catholic Church, but later seemed to be more affiliated with the independent St. John the Baptist parish that was part of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese (and St. John's pastor, Father Andrew Musko, was the society's chaplain). The society's founder, Michael Felegy, was a Rusyn immigrant from Vyšný Tvarožec, Šaryš County who had quite a career in business and Carpatho-Rusyn fraternal/political life, only a bit of which is covered in his obituary.

Michael Felegy's obituary, The Morning Call, June 3, 1968

Club officers reelected, The Morning Call, December 19, 1949

The club's building at 170–172 Allen Street still exists (I took the photo below 10 years ago), I guess, but who owns it? Is it still the St. Nicholas Club? It doesn't look much different on Google Maps street view's image from 2017. I would love to see the inside and find any memorabilia they might still have.

St. Nicholas Club, 2008. Note the Rusyn-language inscription across the facade: Dom spolku sv. o. Nykolaja (and in English, "St. Nicholas G.C. Russian Aid Society").

Maybe there are some printed ephemera (banquet program booklets, etc.) that exist with more detailed info (and better photos)? If you know of any, please get in touch!

In any case, I will be very happy to add the story of the St. Nicholas Society to my chronicle of the Carpatho-Rusyns of Allentown.

Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.