Rita at Broad and Federal Streets. The sale was negotiated by P. F. Kernan, real estate broker. Included in the sale of Salem Church was the two-story parsonage adjoining Ninth Street. The price paid for the church and parsonage was $14,500. The Salem building will be used, in the future, as a chapel in connection with the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel on Christian Street, west of Eighth. It was built about eighteen years ago and it is significant of the rapid change of population in the older section of the city. It was found necessary to offer it for sale several years ago. It was held for sale until recently for $28,500. About a year ago, a Hebrew congregation entered into an agreement to purchase the church for $18,500, but the sale was not consummated. The church and parsonage were purchased by the Augustinians with the approval of Archbishop Edmond Francis Prendergast who realized that there was a great demand for Italian speaking priests in Philadelphia. On Sunday, April 14, 1912, Father Martin J. Geraghty, Commissary General of the Augustinians in the U.S., blessed the new chapel. The archbishop could not attend because of a previous engagement. The priest in residence there was to be the administrator. The church building had two levels which was not suited for Catholic worship. A few minor changes were made to remedy the situation. Nevertheless, in 1916, the building was torn down and the new structure was built. At 3 P.M. on Sunday, December 3, 1916, a large number of people witnessed the laying of the cornerstone of the new St. Nicholas Church. Father Alfonso Baldassare officiated. The people in the area were pleased with what was being done, and contributed according to their means. Three beautiful marble altars were donated by the Lagomarsino family, the main altar dedicated in memory of Father John Cerruti, the first administrator. It should be remembered that, in those early days, the Augustinians of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church had to administer to the spiritual needs of Italian Catholics who lived between 8th and 12th Streets and south of Market Street as far as the Navy Yard. For twenty-one years this new church, St. Nicholas of Tolentine, worked under the parent church, Our Lady of Good Counsel, on Christian Street. Each successive priest was an administrator, although the faithful considered him their pastor.