St. Patrick Scaffolding Update

About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that St. Patrick in the Warehouse District had scaffolding in front of the front facade. 1 week ago I made a post regarding the construction. Today, I decided to see if anything happened and i found... more scaffolding! I also got closer photos as well. 

The scaffolding now wraps completely around the belfry. 

The main and left entrances are closed, meaning you either have to enter through the side doors or the right entrance. 

In the parking lot was more scaffolding. This could be more to add, or a pile already used. Whatever project they are doing, I hope they get it done soon because when driving on the I-75, all you see is scaffolding from one of  Toledo's best facades. 

I also might be wrong on not thinking it is facade work, because I heard the bell ringing after Mass. Facade work? Maybe. 

 

St. Joseph School Maumee

 St. Joseph has a very simple, but old school next door. Established in 1913, the school has slowly been expanding throughout the years with the most recent addition being new preschool rooms. 

Across the street is the home of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who teach at the school. 

St. Joseph, Maumee Then vs. Now

 St. Joseph, Maumee has been a church filled with history of renovations, remodels and redecorating. I have found an image of the church's interior dating back to 1941. I also took an image of what it looks like now. 

 

First is the 1941 photograph. Where do I even begin? Let's start with the walls. There are many murals above the side altars and 2 large frescos in the apse. Another big thing is the ambo is all the way on the left with a baldachin, along with all 3 altars and the presiders chair. Some little things are the communion rail, the St. Ann statue and cross in different places and whatever those circles are on 

the left and right sides of the image. The altars seem to have more design to them as well.

This is what the church looks like today in the same spot. Many of the murals from 1941 are gone and the apse now has 2 stained glass windows. There are no more baldachins and the altars have lost some of their architectural details. The communion rail is gone along with that beautiful ambo and some of the pews. The apse floor has been raised up a few steps, which is why there is a large 3rd step. A lot of things got moved, like the crucifix, St. Ann statue, and the 2 angels on either side of the high altar. The floor is now all carpet. 

This is a new idea that I will try to do for other churches as well. 

St. John the Evangelist, Delphos

 I was on my way to Van Wert one Sunday morning and stopped in the town of Delphos to attend Mass at St. John the Evangelist. I also couldn't help but take tons of photos. Specifically the statues because St. Johns has a ton of them. 

In this image alone, there are a total of 13 statues! Statues aside, the overall interior is phenomenal. However, one thing I noticed was how empty the church was. Not even the baldachins help to stop this problem. On a different note, The vaulting is very nice and the stained glass windows are very beautiful. 

The first of many statues is St. Jude Thaddeus. My camera wasn't focusing for some reason on this one.

 

The next statue is of St. James the Great. You can see the stained glass windows I was talking about with the Crucifixion on the left and the Resurrection. 

St. John the Evangelist, the eponymous saint. 

St. Philip the Apostle along with the Nativity of the Lord on his right. 

St. Simon the Zealot on the right and St. Matthew on the left. Notice that the St. Matthew statue has his own wall recess. 

St. Andrew on the left and St. Thomas on the right. Just like St. Matthew, St. Thomas has a wall recess. 

St. Bartholomew along with the Good Shepherd stained glass on his left. 

St. Peter.

St. James the Less. On his left is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on his right is the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. 

St. Paul the Apostle. Reminds me of a church that looks just like St. Johns

The Blessed Virgin Mary. This image shows how empty the church is. That baldachin just looks weird without a roof. 

The last image on the main floor is of St. Joseph. Here, the tried to solve their space problem by putting a grand piano in the space. Instead, it interrupts my photo. 

The best view of a church is always in the balcony. A very unique (and definitely not the original) ambo. 

In the balcony I found 2 more statues. This one is of St. Anthony 

and this one is of St. Ann. 

One of the most unique things about this church is the organ. It's not just one main facade, but two, with one on either side of the balcony. 

Here is a closer view of the other facade. 

For more images, I suggest going to this image gallery here

Holy Rosary, East Toledo

 

Located at the corner of Wheeling and York St. is the closed Holy Rosary Church. There is almost no information about this church and only a couple websites about this church. I believe the reason for this church being so forgotten is due the more known Cathedral. This is the photo I took. Still fairly preserved along with the nun's house on the left and the rectory in the image below, although the rectory has an ivy issue. 

Both the nun house and rectory are abandoned and closed. 

This is what the interior looked like. Very 1950s. The side altars are nice. 

Next to the Church is a grotto with a statue of the Holy Rosary. Today, the statues are gone, but the grotto structure is somehow still there. 

The school has a similar design. It might have been a chapel because of that entrance

This is the original church located on the corner of Paine and Genesee. 

You can find more images at the Epiphany of the Lord website here, where I found most of the images.

The Story of St. Mary

The story of St. Mary in Toledo is an interesting one. The German parish at St. Francis de Sales was getting too large. So, in 1856, they built a new church and dedicated it to St. Mary. The church was located at the southern corner of what is now Cherry and Spielbusch, across from the Diocese headquarters. The church even had the largest room in Toledo being the sanctuary. That record would be one of many problems to occur. The church was so big, that maintenance and preservation were very difficult. In 1904, a new school was built on Page St. just south of the St. Vincent Mercy Hospital. This school had a chapel that would hold weekend Mass and lead more parishioners to go to the chapel for Mass instead of the Church. This all led to the Churches demolition in the early 1930s along with the school and chapel being closed later on. 

90 years later, this leads to me trying to find the locations of these places. 

The school and chapel are basically unscathed along with the other buildings nearby.

This is where the the original church would've been. Today, its half an empty lot and the other half is where the Lucas County Court of Appeals is. 

 

 

Scaffolding at St. Patrick

 

For almost a week, there has been scaffolding set up in front of St. Patrick on the Warehouse District. Facade work? I don't think so. 

On a closer look, the scaffolding ends right at the bottom of the louvers. When I took a closer look at the base of the scaffolding, I saw a rope the went the entire height of the scaffolding. Could they be replacing or refurbishing the bell? Maybe. Either way, Something must be going on, as the main entrance is blocked and the amount of time it has been there. 

Something is missing. . . !

 

Where are Gesu's bells? For many years, there were 3 bells in that "tower". But now there are 3 empty squares. The bourdon bell stopped ringing years ago, then the high bell stopped ringing last month. That left the middle bell to control the Angelus. There are some hints as to why they are gone, like that crane in the bottom right corner. Also, the bells were oxidizing very badly and might be getting refurbished. As for how long, I have no idea

I'll probably have an update post when (or if) the bells are back.

St. Joseph, Maumee After Mass

 One day after Mass, I took photos of the areas behind the altar at St. Joseph, Maumee.

The server sacristy. You can see 1 of 3 thuribles that the Church uses hanging next to the door frame. That is not the one they use for this mass, however. On the left, you can see all 4 candles that the acolytes would process with. The cabinet on the right holds all of the server albs as well as the Master of Ceremonies' vestments. The left cabinet has vestments for the priests, but they do have another closet which stores the outer vestments. 

This is where the thurible is placed after mass so the smoke can ventilate outside (you can still see the smoke from Mass). It's a basic countertop with the usual necessities for incense, such as charcoal, lighters, etc. 

A view of the High altar from the server sacristy. 

This is what the lector would see when reading the readings.

And this is what the priest would see during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. 

The Credence table. I was too late and couldn't photograph everything. All there is is the Lavabo bowl and pitcher, the Roman Missal, the gluten free container (that barely get used) and a bottle of hand sanitizer. However, you will notice some shapes on the tables with labels. This is how the Church organizes the table.

The Church has recently bough a new Roman Missal. As for the old one, many pages were ripped. 

The sanctus bells. 

It mas seen weird that I would take a photo of the stairs to the sacristy, but there is a reason. Those stairs weren't there when the church was first built. Instead, the main altar was the same level as the sacristies and the high altar had steps leading up to it. I'm pretty sure that during a remodel, they raised up the main apse floor and installed these steps to get into the sacristy. 

Lastly are two images outside of the Church. The top image is a statue of Mary dedicated to the Rosary Altar Society and the bottom image is the new alleyway behind the church. The flower pots and mulch on the right are a nice touch.