St. Mary's German Catholic Church
423 First St NW
From Heart and Soul by Linda Samuels.
#1 is the original location of St. Mary's (German) Catholic Church.
#2 is the original location of Grand Rapids Union High School and now is the location of St Mary's Catholic Church
#3 is the second Union High School now condominiums.
St. Mary's Church, 1857. A frame
church, 75 feet long and 30 feet wide,
was built at the corner of First and Broadway Streets.
#2 Current church showing the now demolished school beyond.
From the website of Peter Biggins St. Mary's Church, Grand Rapids which states that in 1857 St. Mary's Parish was carved out of St. Andrew's Parish to meet the spiritual needs of the German Population. This is a picture of the first Church. History of St. Mary's Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., which was published on the occasion of the Church's golden jubilee in 1907.
See 1853 map
Since the original land records were burned and the duplicate copy was sold in the throw-away 1960's to a a local private company who was taken over by a non-local company who destroyed the duplicate set cause they didn't need it and didn't care about anyone else, I will have to speculate.
1. 1847 Scribner & Turner's Addition is platted.
2. 1850 the City of Grand Rapids is
created and annexes a Walker Township Primary School
on the NW corner of First and Broadway (Our Lady of Algona) or Turner (St.
Mary's) apparently on rented land. Have to double check..
See 1853 map
3. 1854 City builds a replacement school north of Third.
4. 1857 St. Mary’s builds a church on First and Turner just west of the former primary school.
5. 1863 the oldest still-existing land record shows the former school lot and
maybe the building too
were sold by Turner
to Anthony Thiele who then sold it to the Bishop.
The current church was built in 1873 on what had been the site
of a Walker Twp Primary School
annexed by the City in 1850, moved farther north and would become
Union High School.
Have to double check this. Maybe Our Lady Algona instead. Hey this is a work in
progress.
6. 1873 the current St. Mary’s was built.
From their web site of the current church:
The original church building, erected in 1857, was replaced in 1873 by our current building, a Gothic-style structure, designed by the eminent architect, Franz G. Himpler. The cornerstone for St. Mary’s was laid on May 25, 1873.
The church steeple, easily seen from US-131, stands 200 feet tall. The building itself is made of white brick with Ionia sandstone trimmings. The interior of the church looks much like it did in the late 1800’s with many of the original details left intact. Prominently featured are the pillars, capped with fleur de lis and olive leaf designs.
Twenty large stained glass windows line the walls of the church, with additional windows in the sacristy, tower, and entry area.
In the mid-1920’s new stained glass windows, were installed. These windows, designed by H. Oidtmann, primarily depict scenes from Mary’s life. Our windows are registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census
I have tried to impact every source with corrections or comments so everything on this site is copywrited. The information may be used for your project but the source must be cited.
From Article West Side General
From Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
From web site: MyCityofGrandRapids.info