With roots as a mission church visited by Father Basil A. Shorb, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Doylestown, in 1837, St. Vincent de Paul parish is the oldest church in Akron.
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With roots as a mission church visited by Father Basil A. Shorb, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Doylestown, in 1837, St. Vincent de Paul parish is the oldest church in Akron.
St. Bernard Catholic Church in Akron, Ohio, was declared a historical monument in 1989 when it was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. Distinctively German-Romanesque with a Baroque influence, its architectural style is patterned after many of the great cathedrals in the Rhineland region of Europe.
Construction on the current church building began in 1902, and was opened in 1905. The building features a German Baroque Romanesque style and was designed by Akron-born architect William P. Ginther. St. Bernard Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Our Lady of the Elms High School is a private, all-girls independent Catholic college preparatory high school founded by the Sisters of St. Dominic (now Dominican Sisters of Peace) in 1923.
Construction on the current church building began in 1902, and opened in 1905. It features a German Baroque Romanesque style of architecture and was designed by noted Akron-born architect William P. Ginther, whose portfolio also includes Annunciation, St. Bernard, and St. Mary Church. St. Bernard Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Although the current church building opened in 1916, the history of St. Mary’s parish goes back much further. In 1887, Bishop Richard Gilmour commissioned Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Mahar, pastor of St. Vincent Church, the oldest Catholic church in Akron, to establish a mission in South Akron. That mission became St. Mary Parish in 1896.
The first class to graduate from St. Mary High School was in 1901. The school’s first football team was formed in 1922, and the St. M’s basketball team won the State Class B championship in 1929. In 75 years of operation, St. Mary High School graduated 4,351 students.
With roots as a mission church visited by Father Basil A. Shorb, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Doylestown, in 1837, St. Vincent de Paul parish is the oldest church in Akron. The current building (pictured here) dates back to 1867.
In1923 The Sisters of St. Dominican purchased what would become their campus from Arthur Hudson Marks, an industrialist and former B.F. Goodrich vice president. The “Elm Court” mansion, built in 1911, was renamed Our Lady of the Elms. It became the sisters’ living quarters.