St. Patrick's Catholic Church is a parish of the Diocese of Davenport. The church is located in rural Monroe County, Iowa,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, on

U.S. Highway 34 U.S. Route 34 (US 34) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from north-central Colorado to the western suburbs of Chicago. Through Rocky Mountain National Park it is known as the Trail Ridge Road where it reaches elevation ...

, west of

Albia, Iowa Albia is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, in southern Iowa, United States. The population was 3,721 at the 2020 census. The city of Albia is known for its historic square and city-wide Victorian Architecture. Albia is also known ...

. It is located in an unincorporated area known as Georgetown and is 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 ...

History

Foundation

The area that would come to be known as Georgetown was settled by people of Irish descent from

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Many who settled the area came to build the first railroad west of the Des Moines River and they originally named the settlement Staceyville. At the time the entire state of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

was part of the

Diocese of Dubuque The Archdiocese of Dubuque ( la, Archidiœcesis Dubuquensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counti ...

. The Rev. Jean Villars from Keokuk visited the area starting in 1848 and celebrated Mass in people's homes. In the 1850s the Rev. John Kreckel from St. Mary of the Visitation in Ottumwa started visiting the area monthly until a small log church called St. Gregory's was built in 1851. As the community grew, in large part because of

Irish immigration The Irish diaspora ( ga, Diaspóra na nGael) refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland. The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner and Meeder, The ...

, a new church building was needed. with They decided to build a mile west, closer to the village of Staceyville. Construction on the new St. Gregory's Church was begun in 1860 and completed in 1865, the same year the Rev. Bernard P. McMenomy was assigned to the parish. The

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

had delayed construction of the church. The church was designed by the Rev. Timothy Clifford and constructed of

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

in the

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 ...

style by Carr & Cullen. The sandstone was quarried by hand from Babb's Quarry a few miles away. The parish became a missionary center in southern Iowa. The pastor visited communities in Afton,

Bauer Bauer is a German surname meaning "peasant" or "farmer". For notable people sharing the surname, see Bauer (surname). Bauer may also refer to: Education and literature * Bauer's Lexicon, a dictionary of Biblical Greek * Bauer College of Busin ...

, Chariton, Dutch Settlement, Irish Settlement (

Decatur County Decatur County is the name of various past and present counties in the United States, all named for Stephen Decatur: *Decatur County, Georgia *Decatur County, Indiana *Decatur County, Iowa *Decatur County, Kansas *Decatur County, Tennessee *Decatur ...

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, Melrose, Osceola, and Woodburn. The church was renamed St. Patrick's in 1872 in acknowledgment of the parishioners’ Irish ancestry. Staceyville was renamed Georgetown sometime later. The parish became a part of the Davenport Diocese when it was established in 1881. The

stained glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

were added to the church in 1892. The small bell tower with a short

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

that sits on top of the roof above the main entrance of the church was added in 1903. It houses a bell that the congregation bought in 1896. A renovation of the church's interior from 1905 to 1906 included building an inclined floor, a pressed tin ceiling, new pews, altars, and statues. The

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

was installed in the back gallery in 1924.

Parochial School

The parish supported a school staffed by the

Congregation of the Humility of Mary The Sisters of the Humility of Mary is a Roman Catholic religious congregation, founded at Dommartin-sous-Amance, France, in 1855. The community immigrated to the United States in 1864, and established themselves near New Bedford, Pennsylvania. Th ...

from Ottumwa. It was one of seven

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 ...

s in the diocese that operated as

public schools Public school may refer to: *State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government *Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...

. All of these areas were predominantly Catholic, nearly 100%. In the early 20th century the state of

required all districts to have a school. Parochial schools fulfilled the requirement. Funds were used to pay at least some of the Sister's salaries, books (except for religion), equipment and other items per the contract with the state. Starting in 1937 lawsuits were brought against the districts challenging their legal right to employ the Sisters. The District Court upheld the practice, but the state Supreme Court overturned the decision and left it open for a retrial. The case was dropped as was one in 1941. While the state could not restrict employing teachers based on their religious beliefs, they could restrict what they wore. The Sisters continued to wear their habits, but they removed their

rosaries The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

and

reliquaries A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including '' phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it is housed a ''fer ...

. In 1953 the state legislature passed a law that refused state aid to these schools. The school at Georgetown chose to replace the Sisters with lay teachers so they could continue to receive financial aid from the state. The school closed in 1959.

The Modern era

The church building was extensively renovated in the late 1950s. The

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

was moved forward and a central heating system was installed. A kitchen and meeting rooms were added to the church's north side. The ceiling was lowered, obscuring the tin ceiling, and new walls and flooring were installed. The side entrances into the church were closed off and replaced with shrines. Running water and electricity were added to the sacristy and social rooms. Two

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es struck St. Patrick's in 1963 and 1969. On both occasions the church's roof was damaged. As the numbers of clergy started to decline, St. Patrick's lost its resident priest and it was clustered with other parishes in Monroe County. It has been run by a lay Parish Life Coordinator under the direction of a Canonical Pastor since the 1990s. The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Other additions to the parish grounds include a memorial garden with a new statue of

St. Patrick ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

. It was added in 2002 as a memorial to a former pastor, the Rev. Mark Swanson. A new parish hall was built in 2006.

Architecture

St. Patrick's Church is a sandstone structure. The stones vary in color from beige to brown. They are roughly cut and measure to in length and to in width. The main facade features a central, double-door entryway that is flanked by two single-door entryways. The two side entrances were closed in a renovation project between 1959 and 1960. The facade is divided into three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

by four non load-bearing

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es.

Lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s are located above all three entryways with three windows located in the central bay. There are six-pointed arch windows located along the east and west elevations of the church. The north elevation features a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

, which can no longer be seen on the interior because of a dropped ceiling and wall that were added to the church's interior in 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's Catholic Church (Georgetown, Iowa) Religious organizations established in 1851 1851 establishments in Iowa Roman Catholic churches completed in 1865 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Iowa Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Irish-American culture in Iowa