St. Nicholas' Catholic Church (Osgood, Ohio)

St. Nicholas Catholic Church and Rectory

Front of the church
Location State Route 705 and Washington St., Osgood, Ohio
Coordinates 40°20′26″N 84°29′33″W / 40.34056°N 84.49250°W / 40.34056; -84.49250Coordinates: 40°20′26″N 84°29′33″W / 40.34056°N 84.49250°W / 40.34056; -84.49250
Area Less than 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built 1907
Architect Edward Schlochtmeyer
Architectural style Gothic Revival
MPS Cross-Tipped Churches of Ohio TR
NRHP Reference # 79002841[1]
Added to NRHP July 26, 1979

St. Nicholas' Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Osgood, Ohio, United States. Built in the first years of the 20th century, it houses one of the newest parishes in a heavily Catholic region of far western Ohio, but it has been recognized as a historic site for its architecture.

Parish history

A stained glass window in the church depicting Saint Nicholas

Although Osgood lies near such heavily Catholic communities such as Minster and Fort Loramie,[2][3]:8 its early settlers were predominantly Protestant.[4] Accordingly, the formation of a Catholic parish in Osgood came far later than the formation of parishes in nearby villages; St. Augustine's Church in Minster and St. Michael's Church in Fort Loramie were established by 1850,[3]:2 but the foundations of a parish in Osgood were not laid until 1904,[4] and formal establishment of the parish came in 1906.[5] In its earliest years, the Mass was celebrated in common buildings; after worshipping for a time in a school, the parishioners purchased a barn for ecclesiastical purposes. For many years, the improvement of the parish's facilities was hindered by its size; the fewness of its members meant that money was frequently scarce.[4] Nevertheless, parishioners took significant steps in late 1906; their first temporary church was completed in September, and in this year they purchased a tract of land on the eastern side of the village. Construction of a permanent brick church soon began, and the finished church was dedicated on September 6, 1908 after costing $22,000. By 1914, membership had increased to eighty-five families from just thirty-five families in 1906.[5]

Structure

The church nave.

The church rests upon a stone foundation with a basement. Brick walls, trimmed with stone, are laid in a stretcher bond, and the building is covered by an asphalt roof. Its plan is primarily that of a rectangle, but gables on each side have the effect of forming a slight transept.[4]

The church's dominant feature is its octagonal steeple, located atop a tower at the entrance. Equipped with a belfry and ornamented with corbelling, the tower is topped with a golden cross. Worshippers enter the church through a vestibule and proceed through the base of the tower; until the addition with the vestibule was built in 1970, the church's exterior doors were a part of the tower.[4]

Rectory

Parishioners erected a brick rectory for their pastor in 1914. Supported by a foundation with a basement and topped with an asphalt hip roof, the two-story house lies adjacent to the church's eastern side. Among its features are a porch that faces the church on the house's western side and a dormer that pierces the house's southern roof. The house is a square, three bays wide on each of its sides.[6]

Preservation

In 1977, an architectural survey ranked St. Nicholas' Church in good condition, both inside and out; it was noted that there were no significant threats to the building's continued existence.[4] Two years later, the church and its rectory were added together to the National Register of Historic Places for their architectural significance. Twenty-six other church buildings in the Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches were listed on the National Register at the same time; two others in Darke County, St. Louis' Church in North Star and Holy Family Church in Frenchtown, were among these churches.[1]

Today, St. Nicholas' remains an active parish of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. It is clustered with St. Louis parish in North Star and St. Remy's Catholic Church in Russia; the entire cluster is a part of the Sidney Deanery.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ DeLorme. Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer. 7th ed. Yarmouth: DeLorme, 2004, 54-55. ISBN 0-89933-281-1.
  3. 1 2 Brown, Mary Ann and Mary Niekamp. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Cross-Tipped Churches Thematic Resources. National Park Service, July 1978. Accessed 2009-11-21.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brown, Mary Ann. Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: St. Louis Catholic Church. Ohio Historical Society, August 1977.
  5. 1 2 Wilson, Frazer. History of Darke County Ohio: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Vol. 1. Milford: Hobart, 1914, 602/603.
  6. ↑ Brown, Mary Ann. Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: St. Nicholas Rectory. Ohio Historical Society, 1977.
  7. ↑ The Futures Project, Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Accessed 2010-03-26.
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