When the Garden State Parkway was extended south to Lincroft in the early fifties, it connected city to suburbs. The building boom that resulted brought many young families to this area. Many were Catholic, who not only needed a place to worship, but were also seeking a Catholic education for their children. The Diocese of Trenton obliged by purchasing two adjoining chicken farms with a total of 20.5 acres in the heart of the small village of Lincroft.

St. Leo the Great Parish was established in June 1958 when Reverend Arthur J. St. Laurent was appointed the founding pastor. Due to illness, however, he was unable to assume his duties until September of that year. Early parishioners attended St. Leo’s first Sunday Mass on July 26th in the Lincroft Public School. It was celebrated by Rev. Francis A. Crine, a native of the area. Thanks to the Middletown Township Board of Education, Masses continued to be celebrated in the public school until the church was completed several months later. On October 29, 1958, the first daily Mass was celebrated with thirty persons in attendance, after parish volunteers helped convert two rooms in the rectory (one of the original farmhouses) into a small chapel. To meet the spiritual and social needs of the three hundred and fifty families registered in the parish at that time, the Holy Name and Rosary-Altar Societies were formed and St. Leo’s was on the path of progress toward the development of the great parish it is today. Meetings were held in the rectory basement. Religious instructions for public grammar school children were held every Sunday after 8:00 a.m. Mass by the Sisters of Mercy from St. James School, Red Bank. Transportation was provided by the ladies of the Rosary-Altar Society. In May 1959, forty-four children received their First Holy Communion, another milestone for the new parish.

Plans were made to construct a building suitable for both church and school, and volunteers started a fund raising campaign in March 1959. The Sisters of St. Francis, Glen Riddle, Pa. agreed to provide teaching sisters for the September 1960 school year. On April 22, 1959, the school’s official groundbreaking took place. In November 1959, His Excellency the Most Rev. Bishop James J. Hogan officiated at the laying of the cornerstone of the new parish building. The Dedication and Blessing of the new St. Leo the Great Church/School took place in June 1960. Two months later, the parish welcomed its first teachers - four Sisters of St. Francis. The Sisters lived in four classrooms on the school’s second floor.