Property Record
312 S STATE ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | St. Mary's Catholic Church |
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| Other Name: | ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH |
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| Reference Number: | 39251 |
| Location (Address): | 312 S STATE ST |
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| County: | Outagamie |
| City: | Appleton |
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| Year Built: | 1874 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 1991 |
| Historic Use: | house of worship |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | TH.O'KEEFE[COR] |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | Additional map codes are: 11/19. Related buildings: OU 39/22; modern garage; attached modern two-story parish center; modern grad school across street. The church's original steeples are said to have blown down in a a storm years ago. This property is locally significant under Criterion C as an example of an early Victorian Gothic style church that retains its architectural interest in spite of various alterations that have been made to the towers and by the addition of an entrance vestibule across the front in the twentieth century. St. Mary's is the oldest church in Appleton and is a good example of the symmetrical Gothic style ecclesiastical architecture popular before the taste for rich ornament and picturesqueness led to the more spiky High Victorian Gothic style churches such as St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran at 302 N. Morrison Street. From "Appleton's Historic Old Third Ward Walking Tour" pamphlet, revised 2014 (www.focol.org/oldthirdward): "Father Bonduel celebrated the first Catholic Mass in Appleton in 1848 at the home of Hippolyte Grignon. Irish immigrants formed that first congregation and by 1857 they organized the St. Mary parish, erecting a frame church in 1859. Architect and Third Ward resident Thomas O'Keefe (whose home is now gone) designed the present church and the cornerstone was laid in 1874. Massive windstorms in 1923 and 1930 toppled the south steeple, causing the parish to replace both steeples with the parapets seen today." |
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| Bibliographic References: |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |