This large Roman Catholic Church is located one block from St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the First Presbyterian Church, and the St. Anthony's Convent otherwise pictured on this blog. Built in the late teens and completed in 1920, funds to construct the church were raised from the parishioners. The church was formally dedicated by Bishop McGovern on August 15, 1920. The church rectory is next to it, and can be seen in the bottom photograph. To the far right, only partially visible in this photograph, is the Shepherd's Staff, the church offices.
This church served as the only Roman Catholic church in Casper Wyoming up until 1953, when Our Lady of Fatima was opened. The church also currently serves the St. Francis Mission in Midwest Wyoming.
St. Anthony's was recently updated (Spring 2014) to include a Ten Commandments monument.
My parents were married in this church in 1958 and I was baptized here.
The church has, within the entryway, a memorial to its parishioner's killed during World War Two.
I've noticed that this particular entry had tended to remain in the top three of the most observed entries on this blog, not that there's a lot of traffic on this blog. My theory is that people are hitting it looking for the Parish website. That being the case, you can find the parish website by hitting this link here.
Epilog:
St. Anthony's recently received a new set of steps. The old cement was decaying after a century of use. So, as a result, the front of the church now has a slightly different appearance.
Updated: December 7, 2014.
I recently photographed St. Leo's Catholic Church in Lewistown Montana which bears a striking resemblance to St. Anthony's. For those who might be interested, the link is here, but you can also run a search for it here on this blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://churchesofthewest.blogspot.com/2012/07/st-leo-catholic-church-lewistown-montana.html
What a pretty church!
ReplyDeleteAnd how neat to see the photo of your parent's wedding.
Thanks for sharing that.
What was the ethnic composition of this parish in 1910 and were any of the workers/builders Italian?
ReplyDeleteLargely Irish. I don't know if any of the workers were Italian, and given the size of the structure and the time at which it was built I wouldn't be surprised if a Denver based, or other out of state construction company, built it (although I don't know that), but there would have been a complete lack of Italian influence in the community both then and later. While there are of course Italian Americans in the community and no doubt in the Parish, it was the Irish that absolutely demographically dominated the early history of the Parish followed by, most like, those of German extraction. Many of the early Priests were Irish or Irish Americans.
DeleteThe only community in Wyoming that has a significant Italian population is Rock Springs, which has two Catholic churches, neither of which has an Italian influenced name, but one of which does have an Eastern European influenced name, reflecting the large Slavic demographic there. St. Anthony, however, is recalled in at least four Wyoming Catholic churches around the state, none of which have ever had a significant Italian population.