Holy Family Catholic Church

About this property

Holy Family Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Wayne Township, Darke County, Ohio, United States. Located in the unincorporated community of Frenchtown, it houses an active congregation, and it has been accorded historic site status because of its well-preserved Gothic Revival architecture. The first settlers of northeastern Darke County and southwestern Shelby County were predominantly French. The first parish in the region encompassed the areas now divided between St. Denis Parish in Versailles, St. Remy Parish in Russia, and Holy Family Parish. This parish, originally known as St. Valbert's Church, was organized among these French settlers in 1839, with its church located 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Versailles; it was a mother church of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who were beginning to minister to the Catholic population of the region at this time. In 1846, St. Remy and Holy Family parishes were created as separate parishes, while St. Valbert relocated to Versailles and was rededicated to St. Denis in 1864. Members of Holy Family Church quickly began to organize their congregation, completing a log church by the end of 1846; after it burned in 1848, another log church was built. At the same time, the members of St. Remy's Church were beginning to build a church, and competition began to arise between the two parishes. Ultimately, a wager was agreed upon of two gallons of whisky, to be given to the first parish to lay the log foundation for their churches; Holy Family won the prize. As more French settlers continued to arrive in the 1850s and early 1860s, the church became too small, and the members decided to erect a larger brick structure. The present Holy Family Church was completed in 1866 in the Gothic Revival style. Its gabled roof is topped with a bell tower; the walls are of brick painted white, and the building rests on a stone foundation without a basement. Most of the exterior remains little changed from its original format, although the entrance has been hidden by the addition of a small structure in 1964. The interior has been changed more substantially than the exterior; the original elaborate altars and statues have been removed, and the original baptistery and sacristy have been replaced by a new baptistery and sacristy in the 1964 addition. Still present is the interior lighting from the original lancet windows of stained glass, each inscribed with the name of the individuals who paid for the window. Architectural historians have divided the Precious Blood-related churches of western Ohio into multiple generations. Only a few buildings remain from the first generation, which consisted primarily of small wooden churches, and only St. John's Church in Fryburg remains essentially unchanged. Replacing these wooden buildings were the churches of the second generation, which were generally small brick buildings without tall spires. Holy Family's simple rectangular plan and small bell tower makes it a fine example of the churches of the second generation.

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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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