Saint Urban is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Lewis County, Washington Lewis County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 82,149. The county seat is Chehalis, and its largest city is Centralia. Lewis County comprises the Centralia, WA Micropolitan Stat ...

, United States. It is located approximately northeast of Winlock.

History

The town's existence began as two families, who were German and Swiss immigrants, settled the area in approximately 1889. They named the new community after a small village of the same name in Switzerland. The central hub of the community was located at the intersection of Military Road and Sargent Road and at its height of prosperity, consisted of a small store, a Catholic church, a school and a

Grange hall The National Grange, also known as The Grange and officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a social organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and pol ...

. As of 2022, only the Grange hall and church remain.

Historic buildings and sites

The St. Urban Church, originally called the Assumption Catholic Church was dedicated on August 15, 1891, the day of the

Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

. By the early 2000's the church building had become dilapidated and had been decommissioned, though the cemetery was still maintained. The

Archdiocese of Seattle The Archdiocese of Seattle () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in western Washington State in the United States. The diocese was known as the Diocese of Nesqually from 1850 to 1907. The mother ch ...

was contemplating destroying the building. A group of former residents and their descendants, concerned about the loss of a historic landmark, formed the St. Urban Settlement Foundation in an effort to save the church. Volunteers worked towards the restoration effort that culminated in the reopening of the building with a ceremony on August 15, 2010. The church is considered the first, and last, original public building of the early St. Urban community.

Education

The first school in St. Urban was built on property owned by Frederick Schlittler, approximately north of the main intersection of the town. A new school district, 37, was assigned on January 8, 1884. The original school was replaced with a somewhat larger building, , and was located diagonally across the St. Urban intersection from the church.

References

Populated places in Lewis County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Lewis County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) {{LewisCountyWA-geo-stub