St. Mary of the Visitation Catholic Church (Ottumwa, Iowa)

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Coordinates: 41°01′10″N 92°24′38″W / 41.01944°N 92.41056°W / 41.01944; -92.41056
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
St. Mary of the Visitation Church
Sede Vacante
Pastor(s)Rev. James G. Betzen, C.PP.S.

St. Mary of the Visitation Catholic Church is a parish of the Diocese of Davenport. The church building is located on the corner of 4th and Court Streets in downtown Ottumwa, Iowa, United States. It is part of the Central Park area, which is the civic center of the community. It includes: the Wapello County Courthouse, the Ottumwa Public Library, and the Ottumwa City Hall. The church is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but it has not been listed.[1]

History

Old St. Mary's Church (right) and the courthouse.

St. Mary of the Visitation Parish was established in 1849 when Bishop

Bauer
.

A new and larger church building was constructed of stone in 1860 on the site of the present church. Two other parishes were established in Ottumwa, which reduced St. Mary’s in size. St. Patrick’s was established on the south side of town in 1879. Both parishes became part of the Diocese of Davenport when it was established in 1881. Ottumwa’s third parish, Sacred Heart, was started on the east side of town in 1897. It closed in the 1990s. The number of Spanish speaking people have moved into the Ottumwa area, and Masses are celebrated in Spanish at St. Mary’s.

Church Building

By the 1920s it was determined the church building was too small for the growing congregation, so plans were made to replace it with the current structure. The present St. Mary of the Visitation Church was designed by C.I. Krajewski, an architect from

finials
on three of the corners and a copper-covered lantern topped by a cross on the fourth.

The main entrance of the church is deeply recessed within a Gothic arched opening. The original wooden doors matched the

Blessed Virgin Mary
under whose patronage the church is dedicated.

The interior reveals a traditional

Latin Cross floor plan. The long, narrow nave ends in the altar area. Before the altar is the transept wing that forms the cross. Two side aisles flank the main nave and are separated from the nave with Gothic arches. The interior walls are constructed of tannish-brown brick, highlighted by inset carved stone panels. The altar area was simplified following the Second Vatican Council
. The ceiling is built on large wooden trusses that hold up ornately painted ceiling panels.

Large stained glass clerestory windows line the walls of the main nave and depict different saints. Narrow windows light the side aisles. All of the windows in the church were created by Emil Frei, Inc. of

Chicago, Illinois. A large pipe organ
was placed in the church in the 1990s.

Catholic schools

In 1862 the

Congregation of the Humility of Mary
started a school for boys in the basement and in one other room of the rectory. In 1890 they purchased the Visitation convent and academy for their motherhouse and were responsible for the education of both the boys and the girls at the parish school. In 1926 St Mary’s added high school grades to the school. In 1935 the three Ottumwa parishes joined to support Central Catholic High School. A new high school building was built in 1954 and the school was renamed Walsh. In 1970 the Catholic people of Ottumwa voted to close Walsh, along with all the parish grade schools in Ottumwa. There was an attempt to raise money to save the schools, but the campaign came up short. In 1975 a new grade school, supported by all three Ottumwa parishes, was opened and named Seton. Classes were held in the St. Mary’s and St. Patrick’s school buildings.

References

  1. ^ a b c "St. Mary's Catholic Church (1930)" (PDF). City of Ottumwa. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  2. ^ a b Schmidt, Madeleine M. (1981). Seasons of Growth: History of the Diocese of Davenport. Davenport, Iowa: Diocese of Davenport. p. 70.
  3. ^ "History of the Des Moines Diocese". Diocese of Des Moines. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  4. ^ Molly Myers Naumann. "Architectural & Historical Resources of Ottumwa, Iowa". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-09-07.

External links

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