The Church of the Holy Spirit was officially established by Cardinal Francis Spellman on May 17, 1966. Initially there was no church building, only the rectory at 1969 Compond Road. 

The first  liturgical  celebration  was  held  June 19, 1966, in the  auditorium of  Villa Loretto  on  Crompond  Road  in Peekskill, with  300 people participating.  By  September, the  parish was offering  three Sunday Masses at the Villa in the chapel of the Sisters of the Good Shepard. A Confraternity of  Christian Doctrine  program enrolled 95 children.

A  year  later, Masses  were  moved  from the Sisters’ chapel to the  Beach Theater  (now a child care center) at the edge of the Beach Shopping Center.

Realizing  that  the  theater  could be only a temporary  home, the parish built  the all purpose Parish Center next to the rectory, with the inaugural Mass celebrated on the First Sunday of Advent in 1976.

Our  Parish Activity Center  was dedicated  in January 1995, giving  a  permanent  home  to our Religious Education program, whose  travels had included Mount  Florence in Peekskill, the former  Franciscan  High School in Mohegan Lake and  the First  Hebrew  Congregation in  Peekskill. In addition to the  education of more than 600 youngsters in the faith, the Parish Activity Center provided much-needed space for parish groups and activities.

As of  this  writing (March 2011), the  number of registered  families is  just over 1,300 and  our  Religious Education program has over 650 students.

As  our  population  continued  to  grow, the  need for  larger  worship  space  became  evident.  A  committee  was established  in 2004 to  address  this  need, and  in  early 2008 we  received  the long-awaited  permission  from the Archdiocese of New York to renovate and expand the existing church.

After a  quest  for  temporary  worship  space elsewhere, the  parish expanded  the Parish  Activity Center  to accommodate a sanctuary. In Spring of 2010 work began on the church to turn our plans into reality.

Thanks  to the grace of God – and a lot of prayers and hard work – Holy Spirit has  been blessed with a church that should serve us well into the foreseeable future.

Compiled by Jeff Canning