St. Rose's Catholic Church (also known as "St. Rosa's Catholic Church"Scranton, S.S. ''History of Mercer County, Ohio and Representative Citizens''.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

: Biographical, 1907, 224.) is a historic

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in St. Rose, an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Marion Township, Mercer County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

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 ...

Parish history

Catholics near the community of St. Rose began meeting for worship in 1837; they built a log church building in the following year, and in early 1842, they purchased land ultimately to be used for a cemetery and a larger church."Mercer County, Ohio History 1978" Celina: Mercer County Historical Society, 1978, 767. In 1844, these individuals were erected into a separate

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, which was dedicated to St. Rose. At that time, the parish encompassed a significantly larger area than it does today; five other parishes — Nativity in

Cassella Cassella AG, formerly Leopold Cassella & Co. and Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur AG, commonly known as Cassella, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Founded in 1798 in the Frankfurt Jewish Alley by ...

St. Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbonne, Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Roman Italy, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christianity, Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional beli ...

in Sebastian,

Precious Blood Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Christian theology refers to (a) the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomp ...

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...

, St. Aloysius in Carthagena, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Montezuma — were partially or entirely formed from territory originally included in St. Rose parish.

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

was celebrated at the church sporadically for its first eight years; only in 1845, after several priests from the Congregation of the Precious Blood began serving St. Rose and several surrounding parishes, were the parishioners able to have regular services. By the 1850s, the log church building had become too small, so a replacement brick structure was constructed at a cost of $6,000 and

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

in mid-1854. Measuring by , it was periodically modernized; by 1907, it featured such improvements as

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

lighting. However, this structure in turn was becoming too small by this time; four years later, a third church building was begun, and it was consecrated in September 1912. Today, St. Rose's remains an active parish of the

Archdiocese of Cincinnati The Archdiocese of Cincinnati ( la, Archidiœcesis Cincinnatensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese that covers the southwest region of the U.S. state of Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan ...

. It is part of the Marion Catholic Community cluster, along with

parish in

, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin parish in

, St. Sebastian parish in Sebastian, and

St. John the Baptist parish St. John the Baptist Parish (SJBP, french: Paroisse de Saint-Jean-Baptiste) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 42,477. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest c ...

Maria Stein Maria Stein (German language, German, literally Mary's stone or "Mary of the Rock") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in central Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, Mercer County, Ohio ...

. The entire cluster is a part of the St. Marys

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

.The Futures Project

. Accessed 2010-08-22.

Buildings

The parish owns three buildings located adjacent to each other: the church, a

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

, and a former

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

Church

St. Rose's Church is a High Gothic Revival structure, three bays wide on the front and five bays long on the sides. Built in the shape of a

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

, the church is a single-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

brick building; it rests on a

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

of blue Bedford limestone with a basement and is covered with a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof of asphalt. Among its leading architectural elements is its octagonal

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

, topped with a

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". Mor ...

ed belfry. The two corners of the facade feature tall, thin windows and are topped with miniature square towers. Inside, the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

is decorated with multiple white

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

and many statues; the interior is illuminated by light from

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, one of each which is found in each of the side bays. Throughout the building, the architectural elements include high pointed arches.Brown, Mary Ann. ''Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: St. Rose Catholic Church''.

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, February 1977. A small

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

sits behind the church. Architectural historians have divided the Precious Blood-related churches of western Ohio into four generations. Constructed in 1912, St. Rose's is a member of the fourth generation, although it resembles many third-generation churches because of its

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 ...

architecture that features a single central tower. It is one of three extant churches from the fourth generation that were designed by the DeCurtins family. Although the construction date of the previous church building places it in the middle of the first generation,Brown, Mary Ann and Mary Niekamp. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, July 1978. Accessed 2010-02-01. it more closely resembled second-generation churches such as

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...

in Frenchtown.

Rectory

Located adjacent to the church on the west is a three-story rectory. Built in 1905 at a cost of $6,000, it is a rectangular brick building that rests on an

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

foundation; it is covered with a slate roof. Three bays wide on the front and four long on the sides, it features gables on the front and sides, a large

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

-style front porch, and two

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

s. Individuals enter the house through an ornate recessed front door, which is ornamented with details such as an elliptical

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

with a keystone, a

bevel A bevelled edge (UK) or beveled edge (US) is an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they ...

led window, and recessed sidelights. Before the rectory's construction, St. Rose parish was served by priests who lived at the nearby Gruenwald and

Convents.Brown, Mary Ann. ''Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: Saint Rose Catholic Rectory''.

, n.d.

School

Located adjacent to the church on the east is a single-story former

parish 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 ...

. Erected in 1892, it was the second school in St. Rose; it replaced a previous building that was destroyed circa 1900. Built as a

, the building was modified in 1941 and converted into a two-room school. It operated until closure in 1957, due to the enactment of a law by the

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus ...

requiring all school districts to provide a four-year high school education. Since that time, local students have attended the schools of the Marion Local School District.Brown, Mary Ann. ''Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: Saint Rose Recreation Center''.

, October 1977. After its closure, the old school was modified to be a

parish hall A church hall or parish hall is a room or building associated with a church, generally for community and charitable use.

and a recreation center.

Recognition

In 1977, St. Rose's Church, its rectory, and its school were studied by the Ohio Historic Inventory, a

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

program of the

. All three buildings were found to be in good condition without any threats to their continued survival. At that time, the church was deemed eligible for addition to 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 ...

, and all three buildings were added to the Register together in 1979. They were part of a group of more than thirty different Precious Blood-related churches and other religious properties listed on the Register at the same time, including at least one building owned by each of the Marion Catholic Community parishes. The tall Gothic Revival architecture of many churches in this part of far western Ohio has become the namesake of this region, which is nicknamed the "

Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches is a rural region in the western part of the U.S. state of Ohio, centered near Maria Stein, Ohio, Maria Stein in Mercer County, Ohio, Mercer County. Its name is derived from the dense concentration of large Cath ...

References

External links

Marion Catholic Community
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Rose's Catholic Church, St. Rose, Ohio Roman Catholic churches completed in 1892 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1905 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1912 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Churches in the Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches Gothic Revival church buildings in Ohio Churches in Mercer County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Mercer County, Ohio Religious organizations established in 1844 Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati 1844 establishments in Ohio 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States