St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Port Reading

St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Port Reading. . , The community of Port Reading took shape in 1892 when the Reading Railroad extended its line to docks on the Arthur Kill, where coal arriving by train from Pennsylvania was sent off to New York and New England by barge. Many of the workers attracted by the railroad and shipping jobs were from the small southern Italian village of Pietrastornina., To serve the needs of the expanding immigrant population, St. Anthony of Padua Parish was established in 1906 and a church built in 1914. Father Stanislaus Milos became the first resident pastor in 1943; during his 32-year pastorate, he established a parochial school, the first library in Port Reading and a parish Fife and Drum Corps. Today, a growing Sikh population worships at Gurdawara Dashmesh Darbar Sahib on Port Reading Avenue., A majestic remnant of the Woodbridge coal industry is the McMyler Coal Dumper located off Middlesex Avenue near the Carteret border. Built in 1917, this enormous device was used to turn railroad cars upside down and dump coal into waiting barges. The apparatus was seriously damage by fire in 1951, then repaired and used until 1982., More information visit www.wthpc.org , Woodbridge Township Historic Preservation Commission , Mayor John E. McCormac Woodbridge Township 2013