Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church
About this property
St. Patrick's Catholic Church is a parish of the Diocese of Davenport. The church is located in rural Monroe County, Iowa, United States, on U.S. Highway 34, west of Albia, Iowa. It is located in an unincorporated area known as Georgetown and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The area that would come to be known as Georgetown was settled by people of Irish descent from St. Louis, Missouri and Pennsylvania. 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 was part of the Diocese of Dubuque. 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, a new church building was needed. 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 had delayed construction of the church. The church was designed by the Rev. Timothy Clifford and constructed of brick and sandstone in the Gothic Revival 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, Chariton, Dutch Settlement, Irish Settlement (Decatur County), Leon, 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 were added to the church in 1892. The small bell tower with a short spire 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 was installed in the back gallery in 1924. The parish supported a school staffed by the Congregation of the Humility of Mary from Ottumwa. It was one of seven parochial schools in the diocese that operated as public schools. All of these areas were predominantly Catholic, nearly 100%. In the early 20th century the state of Iowa 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 and reliquaries. 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.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church listed on the National Register?
Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 1992.
What type of historic resource is Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church?
Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church?
The period of significance for Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church?
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