St. Francis de Sales School, Toledo

 

I found this old postcard of St. Francis de Sales high school on Bancroft St. This was before the main chapel was built back in 2004. As for the date, it is somewhere between 1955 and 2003. Notice how the main entrance was on the 2nd floor. This was changed in the 2004 renovations along with the chapel. 

This other view is from the Accolade from 1969. 

New Statues at St. Joseph

St. Joseph, Maumee has restored and displayed a new statue from Good Shepherd Church. Along with the Pieta and Good Shepherd statues the have restored the Blessed Virgin Mary statue.

This one is very well preserved. It is almost perfect and I have nothing to critique about it either. 

The Good Shepherd statues has received a staff, but I highly don't think it is the original one.

Across the room from the Mary statue is a statue of St. Anthony. It's not new and not the one from Good Shepherd, but still a very good statue.

Next is this statue of a young Jesus. This statue is in the school, which is a very unusual place. I think it would look better in the sanctuary.

 
 

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.