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Where to find us
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310 Mansfield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15220
Efforts to establish a Catholic church in Green Tree began in November, 1930. The men of the parish converted a frame building located at Mansfield and Greentree Road into a church.
On January 5, 1931, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Hugh Boyle, approved a mission parish of St. Martin Parish in the West End. The Baker brothers won the privilege of naming the new parish. They chose to call it St. Margaret. Their mother’s name was Margaret. It was a good choice! Like their mother, Saint Margaret, Queen of Scots, was a really special woman.
The first Mass at the new St. Margaret Mission Parish was held on May 3, 1931. There were 150 families in the parish covering all the territory between Noblestown and Banksville Roads and the length and extent of Green Tree Borough.
The people of this mission church opened St. Margaret School in the fall of 1931. They invited the Sisters of Divine Providence from Allison Park to staff their new school. The first graduating class was in 1933.
On July 27, 1938, St. Margaret officially became a parish, separate and distinct from any other.
In 1951, a number of houses were scheduled for the wrecking ball to make way for the construction of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway. The parish purchased one such house, the residence of Joseph Johnson, and moved the structure to the parish property where it became the new home of the Divine Providence Sisters. That building later became the parish rectory.
On November 9, 1952, a new school and church were dedicated. From 1952 to 1980, one part of that building served as a house of worship. When our present modern church was built, this part of the building was converted to a gymnasium, which is named after the first pastor, Father McDonough.
On March 4, 1979, the ground was broken for St. Margaret Church as we know it.
St. Margaret Parish, of course, became the Parish of St. Raphael the Archangel in 2021 when it joined with the neighboring parishes Ss. Simon and Jude and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.