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THE NEW SAINT LAWRENCE CHURCH On Saturday January 25, 1950, in the presence of Rev. Elmer Nacy, assistant pastor; the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Adrian; Arthur DesRosiers, architect; Edward V. Monahan, contractor; the building committee; and many parishioners, the Rev. Father Edward J. DeKeyser, pastor, broke ground to mark the official beginning of the building of the new Saint Lawrence Church of Utica. The cornerstone of the new church was blessed and set in place Sunday, September 3, by Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Zaleski. He was assisted by Father Nacy and Father Joseph Schramm of Mt. Clemens. It was a warm September afternoon, and a large crowd of parishioners were present to witness the ceremony. One year later, on October 28, 1951, His Eminence Edward Cardinal Mooney blessed the new structure before the 11:00 a.m. Mass. After 20 years of the "temporary" church, the move from the school basement to the new church was the biggest event in the history of the parish. Nearly 10,000 people attended the annual festival that year and visited the new church. The Utica Sentinel stated: "It seemed that St. Lawrence of Utica was ever to remain small, but with the exodus from Detroit, the surrounding communities began to grow and we now feel that Detroit is gradually moving out this way." As the large industrial plants came out to Macomb County, the face of the parish began to shift away from the farming life, with doctors, engineers, lawyers and technicians moving in all the time.
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