| Additional Information: | CORBELLS IN CORNICE,PAIRED ROUND ARCHED WINDOWSCENTRAL SQUARE TOWER.
Previously surveyed in 1980.Updated photograph submitted in 2007.
This church complex is comprised of a 1938 church (6768 W. Rogers Street, AHI#9276), a 1948 rectory (6762 W. Rogers Street, AHI#144844), a 1942 (remodeled in 1950) convent (6763 W. Rogers Street, AHI#144845) and a 1954 school building (6753 W. Rogers Street, AHI#144846). Beginning with the Romanesque Revival-inspired, brick-faced church, it rests on a raised basement and is topped with a gabled roof that carries a hipped-roof tower at its west end. The structure#25;s original primary facade is obscured by a flat-roofed, 1968 brick entrance addition that is sympathetic to the original church design. Side walls of the church proper consists of rectangular openings along the basement level, while paired, round-arched openings light the nave. The 1948 rectory, located east of the church, stands two stories and is topped with a hipped roof. Its classical stone surround, multiple light windows and overall symmetry provide for a modest and modern, Colonial Revival appearance. A one-story, shed-roof porch wing extends from the west endwall. Located across the street from the rectory and attached to the school is the two-story convent. The structure is faced with brick and is largely non-descript beyond its central gabled parapet which is surmounted by a stone cross. And finally, the two-story school occupies the southwesternmost end of the property. Built in 1954, with an addition in 1963, the two-story educational facility is faced with brick and contains bands of windows along both the first and second levels.
At the urging of the pastor of the Sacred Heart Croatian Church in Milwaukee, plans for a West Allis church began. Indeed, talks began in 1926 and the St. Augustine Croatian Catholic congregation was established in 1928. The following year, two lots were purchased at the corner of S. 68th & W. Rogers streets. A basement church was constructed by the Martin Jezo Construction Company (Jezo was a church member) in 1930 and it wasn't until 1938 that the upper church was finished with the designs of the firm of Lindl & Schutte, Inc. Soon thereafter, twenty-one additional lots were purchased for future expansion. The original rectory, which was a bungalow and was attached to the rear of the church, was remodeled in 1942 (into a two-story structure) in order to accommodate two priests. In 1948, the remodeled rectory was moved across the street and remodeled again, this time for use as the existing convent. The church was expanded to the east and a new rectory, designed by the firm of Lindl & Schutte, Inc., was built further east of the church in 1948. That same year, an existing bungalow located at the southeast corner of S. 68th & W. Rogers streets was purchased to house the congregation's janitor. Six years later, in 1954, ground was broken for their parochial school and an addition was made in 1963. In 1968, the one-story, flat-roofed church entrance was constructed, which included a baptistry, enlarged lobby, ushers' room, an enclosed staircase and a storage room. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Burbach, Historical Review of West Allis, (1927), 97-99; "Kempsmith Company," West Allis Press, 8 August 1919; "Kempsmith Manufacturing Company," Evening News, 13 May 1918, Both articles located in Business Binders K, Located in WAHS; Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map West Allis, Wis. (1927; 1927, updated to 1951). Original permit for church basement at 6768 W. Rogers Street, dated 8 July 1930, no architect noted, Jezo Construction Co., contractor; Permit for church addition, dated 9 June 1938, est. cost $40,000; Permit for remodeling former rectory for use as convent, dated 5 June 1948, est. cost $4,000; Permit for church addition, new rectory and a two-car garage, dated 13 July 1948, est. cost $60,000; Permit for church entrance addition and alterations, dated 11 March 1968, Kotza Construction Co., contractors, est. cost $50,000; "Souvenir Program of the Golden Sacerdotal Jubilee Celebration of the very Rev. Blase Jerkovic, O.F.M., Pastor of St. Augustine Croatian Church," 17 August 1952; "St. Augustine Parish, 1928, 1978," Prepared by the congregation, 1978, Copy of souvenir program and anniversary booklet in the St. Augustine Church binder, On file at the WAHS. |
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