Wednesday, November 21, 2007

St. Mary, Toledo

One of Carl Schon's designs, St. Mary's was built from 1854 to 1856. The 225-foot spire was added in 1866. It was the tallest tower in Toledo, at the time. The cross alone was 16 feet tall. Behind it, stood the parish house, built in 1879, then the school, built in 1874.
The interior, shown at the top right, was supposedly Toledo's biggest room. It may have been too big, since structural problems resulted in the church's demolition in the 1930's. Some of the bricks were used in construction at the Toledo Zoo.
The parish house lasted until 2001, when it was torn down for no blasted sensible reason at all.
The complex stood on Cherry Street, at Michigan.

3 comments:

ShariYS said...

(gasp!) Wayyyyy before my time -- but how I would have liked to see that!

ShariYS said...

Then I started thinking about an item hanging in my living room - I have a collection of largely antique religious art that I've gleaned from various flea markets, some of it is personal family heirloom - but this item is a marriage certificate for a wedding that took place in 1881 at St. Mary's ... so it would have taken place in this magnificent church. I realize that there are sometimes financial issues, and also that sometimes people just don't care ... but it nonetheless just blows my mind that someone, somewhere, let this item go out of their family at some point.

Anonymous said...

The church bell from old St. Mary's is at Gesu.
Many of the bricks were also used for the state hospital on Arlington (now an apartment complex).