St. Stanislaus Church Remodeled, 1970s, Rossville, Kansas

St. Stanislaus Church Remodeled, 1970s, Rossville, Kansas

[Caption]
TOP PHOTO - St. Stanislaus Church in Rossville has a new brick extension on the front of the building. During the recent renovation of the building, a 2,000 square foot basement was also added. The remodeled interior of the building is shown in the lower photo. Photos by Lou Mahan
St. Stanislaus Church is Remodeled


In early June of 1975, the building committee: George Sullivan, Paul Dultmeier and Bob Parnell met with the Rev. Ignatius J. Strecker in Kansas City and had him approve plans to build an addition and renovate St. Stanislaus Church in Rossville.
Later in the month, under the direction of Paul Dultmeier, building contractor in Silver Lake, several of the parishioners started tearing off the porch and siding from the church’s east end. Vern Atkins of Maple Hill dug a basement hole for a twenty-two foot addition. Then the building committee decided to dig out from under the entire church for a full basement. This would make 2,000 square foot of basement floor space.
A few mornings later, someone discovered that 14 feet of the southeast foundation had collapsed, leaving the corner of the church sagging in mid-air. A work crew was quickly assembled to jack it up and they proceeded to form up a wall and pour a new wall themselves without waiting for the cement contractor. Only slight
damage was done to the church.
Jack Clark donated the beam to support the floor.
New white acoustic tiles were nailed to the ceiling in the old church. The walls were painted white and all the woodwork was restained and varnished.
After the new addition was constructed, Don Denton was hired to face the outside with brick. The parishioners painted the outside with two coats of white paint. John A. Wehner donated all the paint for the inside and outside walls.
Mr. DeBacker installed the furnace and air-conditioning unit. Air-conditioning was not in the original plans, but so many people in the parish asked that it be included that a special plea for donations was put out, and the additional $2,000 was soon collected.
The basement contains two rest rooms, and a kitchen is being installed. There will still be space for a large meeting room.
The new addition has a stairway leading to the basement on the north side of the entrance. On the south side is a room for vestments. It has a large window on the west side so it can double as a “crying room” for the babies.
The beautiful blue carpeting on the floor and the yellow and brown carpeting of the old pews was all done by the parishioners under the direction of Mr. Dultmeier. Some of the women sanded and revarnished the old pews. The middle railing and supports were removed and Timothy Lynde, St. Marys, built new supports for the 22 pews.
Several years ago, Timothy donated his time and talent to design and build a new altar, baptismal font and lecturn. Afer [sic] the Jesuits removed the old historic altar, he also built a pedestal for the tabernacle.
A very new type of mercury light will be installed in the old area of the church as soon as they arrive from the factory. Chairs with kneelers have been ordered and new kneelers will be installed on the pews. Then, if there is money left, the yard will be asphalted for a better parking area.
The church is completely surrounded by a wide sidewalk. The yard was cut back on the north side and curbed and asphalted for additional parking.
We had $20,000 to finance this project but it definitely could not have been done for this without the help from so many of the parishioners and the donation of materials from others.
While the renovating of the church was in progress, services were being held under the trees in the yard, in the shelterhouse in the park, and at the Community Center. One Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Michael’s daughter, Megan, was baptized under the trees in the yard. Not many babies have this unique experience.
The original church building was built under the auspicies of Fr. John Kokenge, S.J., who collected about $1,100 to procure the ground and put up the structure. It was 42 x 30 feet, with a sanctuary that added 12 feet to its length.
Names on the stained glass windows in the sanctuary are: Anthony Dolezilek, Fr. John B. Kokenge, S.J., and Frank Fauerbach. The stained glass windows in the body of the church were purchased by individuals in the parish in the 1950s.
The cornerstone was laid June 18, 1899. The document placed in the stone contained the following: “Leo XIII being Pope,
William McKinley being President of the U.S., W. E. Stanley being Governor of Kansas, Joseph Calvin Bradley being Mayor of the city of Rossville, this church to be erected to the honor of God under the invocation of St. Stanislaus Kistka was begun today when the cornerstone was laid this the eighteenth of June in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-nine.”
When the cornerstone was removed and opened for the remodeling, nothing was found except some dust and unrecognizable scraps. The stone was replaced at the northeast corner but nothing was enclosed in it.
This parish has grown from about twenty-five families to over one hundred. It includes the Silver Lake area, Willard and Maple Hill as well as Rossville.
Until recently, we were considered a mission of St. Marys. When the Jesuits left St. Marys, our parish was combined with seven others. The new team of priests came in 1971. Three priests serve the parish.
- written by Mrs. Elmer Lynde

St. Marys Star, St. Marys, Kansas

Rossville Community Library

mid-1970s

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newspaper clipping

RCL0537