St. Agnes by the Sea and Brooklyn Avenue in the 1930s

Sheila Zeytinoglu sent this picture postcard along over the weekend after reading about the house on Brooklyn Avenue in Rehoboth Beach facing demolition. The postcard shows the St. Agnes by the Sea Catholic Church from the early 20th century. 

As  Zeytinoglu noted, also visible on the right side of the postcard is the American Foursquare home built in 1917 referenced in the Barefootin’ article in the Feb. 17 edition of the Cape Gazette. The Roman Catholic diocese responsible for Delaware purchased land in about 1905 from the Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church to build a chapel and vacation cottages for sisters in the Franciscan teaching and nursing order. There were no Catholic churches in Sussex County at the time, and the little chapel built on the property was soon filled to overflowing. 

In 1905, the diocese decided to build the first Roman Catholic Church in Sussex County on the site and called it St. Agnes by the Sea. Storms battered the church over the years. The greatest damage came from the Great Storm of 1962. That time the remains of the church had to be removed.

In the meantime however, St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church was constructed a few blocks away at King Charles and Laurel in the 1940s to fill the need for the growing congregation. The original oceanfront land where St. Agnes by the Sea and the Franciscan cottages were built spanned the entire block between Laurel Street and Brooklyn Avenue.  The property was eventually sold and developed as the Star of the Sea condominiums and commercial space.