In terms of architecture most of the churches known as “Polish Cathedrals” are relatively original variations on the theme of historical forms. Actually, there is nothing strange about it, as in the early 20th century new churches were produced in America not by the hundred, but rather by the thousand. It is estimated that in 1900 there were about 10,000 Catholic churches in the USA and about 18,500,000 Catholics, compared to about 250,000 in 1820. The buildings erected for them were mostly modest, often singletower wooden churches or brick buildings serving the purposes of both religion and education. The scale of immigration is best shown by the statistical data. In 1900 there were about 380,000 first-generation Polish immigrants in the USA, in 1910 it was about 790,000, constituting the fourth biggest immigrant community after the Irish (about 1,000,000 people), Germans (about 830,000 people) and Austrians (also about 830,000 people). It is likely that there were some Poles among those counted as emigrants from the latter two countries. 95% of the Polish community described themselves as Catholic.

As the communities grew, many parishes decided to erect new, more impressive churches. In order to appreciate the scale of the church construction market at that time we need to realize that the above data concern only the Catholic Church, while communities of other faiths also grew rapidly and used historical styles when erecting their temples. With such a huge scale, the notion of the originality of the building becomes relative, but we rarely see a literal repetition of the design. It is the case, however, with the churches of St. Casimir in Detroit and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chicago.

The history of St. Casimir’s parish dates back to 1882, when the first church was erected and Fr. Paweł Gutowski (1845-1918), an immigrant from Poland previously working in a German parish, became its parish priest. Initially the parish was small, of about 80 families. Then, in 1889, a new church was built. The altars were commissioned from A. Osebold, the stained glass windows from George Misch from Chicago. The design of the church referred to the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. The most important element of its composition was a huge dome with a diagonal of over 40 meters. The following years brought further investments – expansion of the Sisters’ convent and school.

In 1961 St. Casimir’s Church was demolished and replaced with a structure which was smaller and cheaper to maintain. However, the parish was closed in 1989. It is not an exception, with an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 place of worship of all faiths being closed each year. This is due to the mobility of the population, as the churches become too large for the current needs and generate too high maintenance costs, especially since many of them require renovation and sometimes even restoration. This leads to closing the churches, but not necessarily to solving the problems. Usually the simplest action is to demolish the unused building, but often this is not so simple. First of all, in less investment-attractive areas it is not economically viable; secondly, it encounters considerable resistance on the part of the local communities, who want to defend the monuments. Another option is to repurpose the temple for the needs of other Christian or nonChristian denominations. This solution also arouses resistance on the part of some people; moreover, it is not always possible to put it in practice. Admittedly, there have been successful adaptations of churches for the needs of other faiths, but first of all, there must be a sufficiently large religious community in the area, and secondly, it is often more convenient to build a new temple than to adapt an old one. In any case, in some churches it is not only the ethnic composition of the church-goers that changes, but also their religious affiliation. Another solution, more and more commonly adopted, is to remodel and repurpose churches, turning them into other types of facilities, e.g. residential buildings. This sometimes gives interesting effects, may be economically justified, allows for the preservation of the historical shape of the buildings, which are often strongly inscribed in the local landscape, but it is still a controversial solution. Only a few churches – like St. Albertus Church – serve historical or museum functions. Most solutions are difficult to accept, but there seems to be no alternative, as it is highly unlikely that most of the churches will be reopened.

Chronology

1882 - establishing the parish

1883 - completion of the first church and school

1887 - construction of the presbytery

1889 - completion of the second church

1906 - construction of the new school building

1924 - construction of a secondary school

1927 - construction of a new conven

1928 - construction of a new presbytery

1961 - demolishing the church and erecting a new one

1989 - closing the parish

Text originally published in a book issued by the POLONIKA Institute.
Anna Sylwia Czyż, Bartłomiej Gutowski, Paweł Sieradzki, Polish Parishes and Churches in Milwaukke, Winsconsin and Massachusetts, Warszawa 2021, pp. 48-51.