| Additional Information: | 2013 New Holstein Survey results:
The Holy Rosary Church Complex is comprised of four buildings: Holy Rosary Catholic Church & School (#1; 1938; AHI#4257); Classroom and gymnasium addition (1951; #222742); Holy Rosary Catholic Church (#2; 1960; #222798); and Holy Rosary Catholic Convent (1948; #222799). Oriented to Illinois Avenue, the 1938, two-story, Collegiate Gothic style and largely rectangular structure is sheathed with stone and finished with a crenelated parapet. A central entrance is defined by compound pilasters and includes a pair of wooden entrance doors, each topped with a transom. Windows throughout the building are mostly arranged in pairs, except for the upper-level examples of the side elevations which are set in narrow bands (with replacement windows). A one-story, flat-roofed and brick-sheathed, 1951 classroom addition extends from the 1938 block and is attached to a front-gabled gymnasium addition (also 1951). Windows in the classroom wing are set in rectangular bands, while the examples in the gym are glass block.
South of the original church and school is the cruciform, Contemporary-style church that is largely sheathed with brick and trimmed with stone. Each of the four wings is topped with a gabled roof with an overhanging eave. The primary Madison Street entrance features a series of glass doors beneath a large window wall that reaches to the roof’s gabled peak. Windows throughout the remainder of the church are regularly arranged, four-light, horizontal-pane examples. Across the street from the school is the two-story, former convent. It is sheathed with brick and topped with a hipped roof. Alternating brick at the corners of the first floor suggest quoining and a very modest Colonial Revival style. A slightly projecting entrance topped with a metal balustrade is fronted by a wheelchair ramp; windows throughout the house are regularly placed and comprised of two-over-two-light, horizontal paned, double-hung windows.
Holy Rosary Congregation was established in 1910, with the first Mass being held at the old firehouse on 26 March 1911. A small, frame, Gothic Revival-style church (no longer extant) was completed that same year. A rectory was completed in 1919, just east of the church along Illinois Avenue and the congregation received their first resident pastor. In need of larger quarters, the congregation engaged Sheboygan architect W. C. Weeks to design a new combination church and school, which was completed in 1938. Upon opening, the school had eighty-two students. From 1944 to 1954, school enrollment tripled and the number of parishioners nearly doubled. After ten years in rented quarters, a home was built for the Sisters in 1948. In 1951, a two-classroom addition was completed, along with a kitchen and gymnasium-auditorium addition. That same year, the 1911 church was razed. In 1960, the current church, designed by Robert W. Surplice and modeled after a church in Storm Lake, Iowa, was completed. The 1938 church space was remodeled into classrooms. A new rectory was built to the south of the 1960 church and the 1919 rectory was moved in 1978 to 1716 Jackson Street, where it remains today utilized as a private residence. In 2007, the schools of Holy Rosary and Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Kiel (as of 2007) merged and renamed the school, Divine Savior Catholic School. |
|---|
| Bibliographic References: | “Many Clergymen Attend Dedication at New Holstein,” The Sheboygan Press, 13 December 1938, 4; “50th Anniversary Celebration: Holy Rosary School, 1938-1988,” 1; “Holy Rosary Parish, New Holstein: Golden Jubilee,” 7-9, 14-15. |
|---|
