The Church of St. John the Baptist was a historic church building in

Virginia, Minnesota Virginia is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mesabi Iron Range. With an economy heavily reliant on large-scale iron ore mining, Virginia is considered the Mesabi Range's commercial center. The population was 8,423 ...

, United States. It was built in 1924 by a

Polish American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83 ...

congregation of Roman Catholics. With In 1980 the church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

under the name Church of St. John the Baptist (Catholic) for its local significance in the themes of religion and social history. It was nominated for serving as the center of religious and social life for Virginia's Polish Americans. The parish moved to a new building on the same block, the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, in the 1970s. The Church of St. John, little used for years, was demolished in December 2018 to make room for a playground and expanded parking lot for the adjacent

parochial school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...

Description

The red brick structure contains

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

elements, with six arched windows on each of the sides and arched windows flanking the main entrance. The steeple above the main entrance has Jacobean styling.

History

The church was built in 1924 and became the center of religious and social life for the Polish immigrants in the city of Virginia. It was consecrated by the first Polish bishop in the United States,

Paul Peter Rhode Paul Peter Rhode ( csb, Paweł Pioter Rhode; September 18, 1871 – March 3, 1945) was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin from 1915 until his death in 1945. Rhode wa ...

. The church was also used by nonreligious Polish organizations, including the

Polish National Alliance The Polish National Alliance ( pol. ''Związek Narodowy Polski'', PNA) is the largest and one of the oldest Polish fraternal organizations in the United States. The original goal was to mobilize support among Polish Americans for the liberati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Of Saint John The Baptist (Virginia, Minnesota) 1924 establishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures demolished in 2018 Churches in St. Louis County, Minnesota Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Demolished buildings and structures in Minnesota Demolished churches in the United States Former Roman Catholic church buildings in Minnesota Gothic Revival church buildings in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County, Minnesota Polish-American culture in Minnesota Roman Catholic churches completed in 1924 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

Description

History

See also

References