When Father Cregan died in 1916, a now 56-year-old Father McCormick graciously returned to his role as pastor of St. Edward. He was assisted by Rev. L. J. Goulette. Due to the rapidly increasing number of parishioners, the original wood-frame church could no longer accommodate the number of Mass attendees. Father McCormack, therefore, moved the sacramental life of the parish into the school auditorium (on the second floor), and converted the church building into the parish hall. 

From the founding of St. Edward in 1899 to the end of his second tenure as pastor in 1918, Father McCormick was enormously influential in the early history of the parish. As its first pastor, he helped shepherd the new parish community through its birthing pains. Then, after the death of Father Cregan, and in a moment of turmoil, he offered the continuity needed to strengthen the spiritual foundation of our young parish. Although he was often in poor health, he served the Church tenaciously and ultimately, when he died in 1962 at the age of 102, lived to be the oldest priest in the United States.  

Following Father McCormack's second (and final) resignation, Rev. John J. Corbett, C. S. V., was appointed the third pastor of St. Edward in 1918. The very next year, he and his assistant, Rev. F. X. Hagen, C. S. V, purchased the Fraser homestead, located at 4450 N. Lowell, for $6,500 in 1919. This was later remodeled into the "Little Green Convent." The sisters' original living quarters, located on the second floor of the school, were quickly converted into much-needed additional classrooms. 

By the mid-1920s, Father Corbett recognized that the needs of his growing parish called for an expansion of parish facilities. The original church was too small; the auditorium was an unfitting setting for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; the sisters needed a larger home as badly as did the priests; and, due to steadily-increasing enrollment, even more classrooms were required. In fact, the school enrolled some 450 children in 1925, and was bursting at the seams. A loan of $130,000 was secured to finance an ambitious plan for parish expansion that would change St. Edward forever.