The congregation was dealt an unexpected blow in 1919 with the sudden death of its beloved pastor during the flu epidemic of that year. Dooling's demise brought to a close the "pioneer" era in the history of St. Mary of Redford. As important as Dooling was to St. Mary's, his successor was responsible for catapulting the parish further and faster than anyone might have dreamed possible. He was a visionary with a master plan for St. Mary's future.

     When John Gilmary Cook assumed the pastorship there were 150 families at the parish. In the seventy years of its existance, St. Mary's never had a formal school established for the children. Father Cook's first order of business was to begin a parish school to provide St. Mary's youngsters with a Catholic education.

     In March1919, two months after his arrival, Cook made arrangements with the General Superior of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) of Monroe, Michigan, to send teachers to St. Mary's of Redford. The next month Cook conducted a census that evidenced his congregation's desire for a parish school but regrettable a lack of funds for the project. The pastor was not discouraged however. He proffered the idea that the parishioners sell off portions of their farmland to the city of Detroit as the city's boundaries encroached on the Redford area. The idea proved successful.

     Though the initial design for the new parish school appeared adequate, Ciik envisioned the need for a larger school and got control of additional land on St. Mary's Avenue. The sisters meanwhile, whose new convent was not yet complete, lived at St. Agnes Parish and commuted to St. Mary's. As the school was not yet ready for occupancy by September 1919, classes were conducted at the former Salley barn, remodeled and renamed Rosary Hall. Grades one through three occupied the first floor, grades four through six were on the second level. At last, in April 1920, St. Mary's students occupied the first unit of the new school facing St. Mary's Avenue which consisted of six classrooms, offices and an auditorium.

     As the Redford farmlands were subdivided into residential housing tracts, property sold quickly and St. Mary of Redford's congregation grew steadily. Construction of the second wing of the school, containing twelve rooms, would not be completed until 1925. Until then, Rosary Hall continued to function as a school. On October 9, 1923, a portion of Redford that included church property and the parish's first cemetary were incorporated into the city of Detroit. Interred remains were transferred to the second parish cemetary north of the church.

     The tiny brick edifice on the corner of Grand River and Mansfied served the parish well but its days appeared numbered. It could no longer accomodate the growing number of parishioners. The pastor was well aware of this predicament but was unfazed. Father Cook was already laying plans for his greatest project to date, a new church.

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