Annunciation Catholic Church at 1020 Montgomery Rd, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714 US - History of Annunciation

On Christmas Eve 1974, St. Mary Magdalen was opened for worship. St. Mary Mag, as we affectionately called it, was the nearest church to this area and considered our Parish. In just a little over four years we had outgrown Mary Mag, and a satellite church was being built. We celebrated the first mass of the new Church of the Annunciation on March 25, 1979 - the feast of the Annunciation. Bishop Grady dedicated Annunciation on September 28, 1980, and for 16 months we were a satellite church of St. Mary Magdalen and Fr. Patrick Caverly was the pastor of both - the priests would travel between the two churches to celebrate the liturgies. On January 14, 1982, we became a parish in our own right and Fr. Caverly was named pastor of Church of the Annunciation. At those first masses here as our own parish with a membership of approximately 800 families, we had standing room only and Fr. Caverly said to the congregation, "I can see we already need a bigger church." So at the end of that very month - January 1982 - Father Caverly began a fund-raiser for expanding the church and buidling the Family Life Center and Parish Office Complex (the offices had been housed in Meadowood Apartments.) It was at that time that the Chapel, Book Store and Sacristy were added on. Then in October 1989 another dream of Father's started taking shape...this was called Project H.O.P.E. (Help Our Parish Expand)...this 2.5 million dollar project provided us with our Adult Spirituality Center/Cultural Center, Child Care Center, Recreation Center and the purchase and conversion of the front half of Meadowood Apartments into a self-sustaining retirement center for our elderly renaming it Marywood Apartments. In 1996 we began our most ambitious campaign - the $5 million project called "The Promise and the Dream", - the building of Annunciation Catholic. From our beginning with 800 families to our present 3500 families representing over 10,000 people a new pledge drive began called "Something Beautiful for God." It was to remodel and enlarge the the Church. It was determined by the Diocese that it would be better to build a new church. Construction began on January 3, 2000. The new Church was dedicated by Bishop Norbert Dorsey on April 8, 2002. After this, the only thing left to do will be to do as St. Mary Magdalen did in 1982 - SPIN OFF ANOTHER PARISH.

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