After the Civil War Catholics began to move into the Northern Valley of Bergen County.  Dutch and English Protestants inhabited this area.  An Irish Catholic from Pennsylvania, John Harrold, was hired to construct some new luxury homes for New York

 bankers and stockbrokers wishing to move out into the country.  Harrold recruited Irish emigrant workers by waiting outside the Castle Garden Immigration Center in lower Manhattan.  As the immigrants arrived Harrold asked if any of them were carpenters and were looking for a job.  He hired men on the spot and brought them to a boarding house in Tenafly.  This was the beginning of the Catholic presence in Tenafly.

In 1873 a group of these Catholic families under the leadership of John Harrold petitioned Bishop Corrigan to start a Catholic parish.  On July 5, 1873 the Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was formally organized.  The first mass was celebrated in a wooden barn.  Soon the families bought a piece of land on the Faley Reservation and built a humble wooden chapel.  The parishioners were proud of their church but the bishop was not impressed.  He was quoted on his visit as saying, “This is not a fit place to bring a Bishop.”

Father Paganini was the first pastor followed by Father Cornelius Cannon.  In 1878 the Bishop entrusted the parish to the Carmelite Fathers of Englewood.  The Carmelites have served in Tenafly ever since.

Father Theodore McDonald, O.Carm. became the third pastor.  He immediately requested the Sisters of Charity to help establish a school.   A strong believer in Catholic education Fr. Theodore told the parishioners, “If I must sell my own coat we shall have Sisters in a very short time, and we shall have our own school.”  In October of 1879 Mount Carmel School opened with 30 students.  Two Sisters of Charity arrived each morning by train from Englewood and walked from the depot one mile to the school through mud and water, heat and cold.  The Sisters of Charity stayed in the parish for 99 years and left in 1978.  The school is still flourishing.

Newly arrived Italian families joined the original Irish Catholic families in the 1890’s.  Both groups were working people, mostly carpenters or stone masons or servants. Both groups struggled to be accepted. In 1905 Father Benedict O’Neill, O.Carm. bought a plot of land in the center of town.  It was the site of the Huyler estate, an old Dutch farm.  The little wooden church was moved from an obscure side street to this new prominent site.  Some boro citizens were shocked at having a Catholic Church so visible in the center of town.

In the 1920’s the Catholic presence in Tenafly greatly increased.  The Franciscan Missionary Sisters bought a large estate on Knickerbocker Road.  The religious orders from Europe needed a house in the New York area since it was the main harbor for the transatlantic ships.  Sisters coming and going from Rome and Ireland used the Tenafly convent.  Today the convent houses over seventy sisters in retirement.  One parish Mass is said daily at the convent.  The sisters bring tremendous spiritual power to the parish.

Also in the 1920’s the Society of African Mission bought an estate in Tenafly and attempted to begin the first interracial seminary in the United States.  Over the years the Mission House has become a headquarters for the SMA Fathers.  Much travel and communications occur from here to the missions in Africa.  The SMA Fathers have added a profound depth to the character and spirituality of Mount Carmel Parish.

During 1917 and 1918 Mount Carmel parish could boast the largest Catholic congregation in the United States.  Camp Merritt was operating those years within the parish boundaries.  Each day the camp’s population was about 50,000 and it was estimated that 40 per cent of the soldiers were Catholic.  On many a night thousands of the soldiers were ordered to embark for Europe and the pastor Father Fidelis Paulding, O.Carm. would go to the camp in the night for Confessions and Communion.

During the first half of the 20th century parish families prospered.  Then in the 1950’s the East Hill of the borough was developed with large and beautiful houses.  Young Catholic professionals moved into the parish from New York and from Union and Jersey Cities.  What was once called a “swamp mission” became a very desirable location.

In 1952 Father Gregory Bergen, O.Carm built the current Church and School.  In the 1960’s Father James McGill built the rectory, convent and new school wing. Father Campion Doyle guided the parish into the new Church of Vatican II.  More recent pastors included Fathers Bertin Smith, Joseph Walroth, Terrence Sempowski, Joel Schevers, Robert Wolf, and Kurt Holderied and Ashley Harrington– all Carmelites. In 2006 Fr. Leonard Gilman, also a Carmelite, was named pastor.

In 1977 the Sisters of Charity left and the Franciscan Sisters came. Slowly various religious orders such as the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Sisters of St. Joseph took on various ministries. Today a lay principal, Ms. Sylvia Cosentino heads the school
 
Mount Carmel is presently made up of 1300 registered families of varied backgrounds and cultures.  It is an active and progressive parish involved in many ministries.