Chauncy.Primm
St. Wenceslaus Church
Once the center of the religious, social, educational and even financial lives of thousands of Baltimore 's Bohemian (Czech) families, St. Wenceslaus Church now struggles to maintain its position as a neighborhood anchor in a radically different East Baltimore . The once predominately Czech neighborhood surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital began a rapid decline following the social upheaval of the I 960s. Now, with the city enjoying an upswing in population for the first time in de cades and Johns Hopkins expanding its medical and research facilities, there is hope that Wenceslaus, Joannes Nep, Maria and Josephus, the four bells in the Italianate east tower, will again ring over a thriving Baltimore neighborhood.
By 1870 Baltimore was already home to about a thousand Roman Catholic Bohemians; in the ensuing decade, as immigration swelled, Baltimore 's Bohemian Catholic population grew to over five thousand. During this time the leaders of the Czech community in Baltimore pressured the Archbish9P of Baltimore to secure the services of a Bohemian-born priest to minister to the growing Bohemian community. They even collected the money to pay for the passage of the eagerly anticipated Bohemian priest. In 1871 the Reverend Wendel in Vacula arrived from Bohemia and began organizing the congregation which later became St. Wenceslaus. The new parish was intended for the use of not only the Czechs in Baltimore , but also the Poles and Lithuanians. By 1879 , despite the opening of a parish school, tensions among the Czechs, Poles and Lithuanians grew. By 1882, the Archbishop of Baltimore, James Gibbons, felt compelled to appeal to the Provincial of the Redemptorist priests in America to send a priest to assume charge of the Bohemian Church in Baltimore . Archbishop Gibbons wrote that, "We will never have permanent peace until your fathers have control of the Parish, ... For the present please send some priest who speaks a little Bohemian, and you will give me great joy."
In November of 1882, the Archbishop's request was granted and Reverend Jan Jenc and' a lay brother, Nepomucene, arrived from Bohemia and undertook the care of the now nearly five thousand members of the St. Wenceslaus congregation. The sixty-five year old Father Jenc threw himself into his work with great zeal and was eventually given two assistants as the parish continued to grow. A new church was purchased in 1886 and a cloister for the Redemptorist priests as well as a convent for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who had been given charge of the school, were added to the property. When the new church was dedicated in December of that year, Cardinal Gibbons praised the congregation for, "gracefully submitting," to a city ordinance forbidding band music on the streets on Sundays and said that, "We are justly proud of our quiet and peaceful Christian Sabbath."
By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the Bohemian community in Baltimore had established itself in the northeast part of the city near Johns Hopkins Hospital and they wanted their church in the neighborhood in which they lived. In 190 I fourteen societies within the parish consolidated their efforts and purchased land for a new St. Wenceslaus church. The fact that the land was deeded to a corporation of the societies caused a conflict with the Cardinal Archbishop who refused to give his permission for a new church to be built until the land was deeded to him. After some opposition, the deed to the land at 814 N. Collington A venue was transferred to the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the cornerstone of the present St. Wenceslaus School building, which included a temporary church, was laid on 14 July, 1902. At the direction of Cardinal Gibbons, St Wenceslaus Parish was to be known as the National Czech and English Parish. Classes in the school were to be taught in both English and Czech and church services were to be conducted in both languages. By 1905 the enrollment in the school had grown to 840 students in eight grades and, since only eight School Sisters of Notre Dame staffed the school, classes must have been unbelievably large.
After the St. Wenceslaus Parish had consolidated itself in East Baltimore, activities of the Catholic Bohemian community revolved around the church. The fourteen societies which pooled resources to purchase land for the church proliferated to nearly thirty. Ranging from the Sixth Ward Bohemian Democratic Club, Men's, Women's and Children's Sokols, Blahoslavene Aneiky Ceske, and the Czech Dramatic Society, these societies served the needs and interests of the entire community. Czech bakeries, groceries, tailor shops and clothing stores, drug stores and savings and loan associations conducted their business in Czech as well as English. In 1914 the cornerstone was laid for the new church. Italianiate in style, the granite church seats seven hundred, has three white Carrara marble altars, and was the spiritual home to 7,000 Bohemian Catholics. (By 1920, St. Wenceslaus was the fourth largest parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and had over twenty societies.)
The tower holds a clock and four bells which were evidently paid for by members of the congregation. In addition to its name, each bell bears the legend, Kmotfi Zvonu Chramu Sv. Vaclava. (Sponsors of the bells of St. Wenceslaus) and a list of names that reads like a roll-call of the Czech community-Kozlovsky, Vitak, Strejcek, Kaspar, Misek, Prucha, Supik, Svehla, Velenovsky and many more.
The last building of the parish complex to be built in East Baltimore was the Lyceum, or Katolica Budova. Completed in 1925, it housed a basketball court, bowling alleys, meeting rooms and a roof-top dance floor and is still used occasionally for parish celebrations.
Now most of the descendants of the original Bohemian parishioners have moved away from East Baltimore, St. Wenceslaus is no longer a National Parish, and the school has been closed since 1986. The school building was converted to apartments and now provides low-cost housing to the needy. The convent has been converted to a hospice staffed by Mother Teresa's Missionary Sisters of Charity who care for AIDS victims. The congregation served by St. Wenceslaus Church continues to mirror the surrounding neighborhood.
nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital complex seems poised to expand further into the neighborhood with its proposal for a high-tech research center. With the resurgence of its surrounding community St. Wenceslaus seems to be poised to become the center of a new, more diverse East Baltimore.
A comment from Father Lyons, pastor of St. Wenceslaus:
This beautiful church structure continues to stand as a great symbol of God's presence and aCtivity among his people, especially those who may struggle against adversity. Because of declining membership, the cost of maintaining the church has become burdensome. Nonetheless, many parishioners, alumni, and friends of St. Wenceslaus have banded together to raise the needed funds to seal the exterior walls, re-set the priceless stained glass windows and restore the pipe orgall, tower clocks and bel/so With God's help, and the support of his people, St. Wenceslaus will continue to stand. as a sign of hope for generations to come.
taken from www.stwen.org/history3.html
St. Wenceslaus Church
Once the center of the religious, social, educational and even financial lives of thousands of Baltimore 's Bohemian (Czech) families, St. Wenceslaus Church now struggles to maintain its position as a neighborhood anchor in a radically different East Baltimore . The once predominately Czech neighborhood surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital began a rapid decline following the social upheaval of the I 960s. Now, with the city enjoying an upswing in population for the first time in de cades and Johns Hopkins expanding its medical and research facilities, there is hope that Wenceslaus, Joannes Nep, Maria and Josephus, the four bells in the Italianate east tower, will again ring over a thriving Baltimore neighborhood.
By 1870 Baltimore was already home to about a thousand Roman Catholic Bohemians; in the ensuing decade, as immigration swelled, Baltimore 's Bohemian Catholic population grew to over five thousand. During this time the leaders of the Czech community in Baltimore pressured the Archbish9P of Baltimore to secure the services of a Bohemian-born priest to minister to the growing Bohemian community. They even collected the money to pay for the passage of the eagerly anticipated Bohemian priest. In 1871 the Reverend Wendel in Vacula arrived from Bohemia and began organizing the congregation which later became St. Wenceslaus. The new parish was intended for the use of not only the Czechs in Baltimore , but also the Poles and Lithuanians. By 1879 , despite the opening of a parish school, tensions among the Czechs, Poles and Lithuanians grew. By 1882, the Archbishop of Baltimore, James Gibbons, felt compelled to appeal to the Provincial of the Redemptorist priests in America to send a priest to assume charge of the Bohemian Church in Baltimore . Archbishop Gibbons wrote that, "We will never have permanent peace until your fathers have control of the Parish, ... For the present please send some priest who speaks a little Bohemian, and you will give me great joy."
In November of 1882, the Archbishop's request was granted and Reverend Jan Jenc and' a lay brother, Nepomucene, arrived from Bohemia and undertook the care of the now nearly five thousand members of the St. Wenceslaus congregation. The sixty-five year old Father Jenc threw himself into his work with great zeal and was eventually given two assistants as the parish continued to grow. A new church was purchased in 1886 and a cloister for the Redemptorist priests as well as a convent for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who had been given charge of the school, were added to the property. When the new church was dedicated in December of that year, Cardinal Gibbons praised the congregation for, "gracefully submitting," to a city ordinance forbidding band music on the streets on Sundays and said that, "We are justly proud of our quiet and peaceful Christian Sabbath."
By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the Bohemian community in Baltimore had established itself in the northeast part of the city near Johns Hopkins Hospital and they wanted their church in the neighborhood in which they lived. In 190 I fourteen societies within the parish consolidated their efforts and purchased land for a new St. Wenceslaus church. The fact that the land was deeded to a corporation of the societies caused a conflict with the Cardinal Archbishop who refused to give his permission for a new church to be built until the land was deeded to him. After some opposition, the deed to the land at 814 N. Collington A venue was transferred to the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the cornerstone of the present St. Wenceslaus School building, which included a temporary church, was laid on 14 July, 1902. At the direction of Cardinal Gibbons, St Wenceslaus Parish was to be known as the National Czech and English Parish. Classes in the school were to be taught in both English and Czech and church services were to be conducted in both languages. By 1905 the enrollment in the school had grown to 840 students in eight grades and, since only eight School Sisters of Notre Dame staffed the school, classes must have been unbelievably large.
After the St. Wenceslaus Parish had consolidated itself in East Baltimore, activities of the Catholic Bohemian community revolved around the church. The fourteen societies which pooled resources to purchase land for the church proliferated to nearly thirty. Ranging from the Sixth Ward Bohemian Democratic Club, Men's, Women's and Children's Sokols, Blahoslavene Aneiky Ceske, and the Czech Dramatic Society, these societies served the needs and interests of the entire community. Czech bakeries, groceries, tailor shops and clothing stores, drug stores and savings and loan associations conducted their business in Czech as well as English. In 1914 the cornerstone was laid for the new church. Italianiate in style, the granite church seats seven hundred, has three white Carrara marble altars, and was the spiritual home to 7,000 Bohemian Catholics. (By 1920, St. Wenceslaus was the fourth largest parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and had over twenty societies.)
The tower holds a clock and four bells which were evidently paid for by members of the congregation. In addition to its name, each bell bears the legend, Kmotfi Zvonu Chramu Sv. Vaclava. (Sponsors of the bells of St. Wenceslaus) and a list of names that reads like a roll-call of the Czech community-Kozlovsky, Vitak, Strejcek, Kaspar, Misek, Prucha, Supik, Svehla, Velenovsky and many more.
The last building of the parish complex to be built in East Baltimore was the Lyceum, or Katolica Budova. Completed in 1925, it housed a basketball court, bowling alleys, meeting rooms and a roof-top dance floor and is still used occasionally for parish celebrations.
Now most of the descendants of the original Bohemian parishioners have moved away from East Baltimore, St. Wenceslaus is no longer a National Parish, and the school has been closed since 1986. The school building was converted to apartments and now provides low-cost housing to the needy. The convent has been converted to a hospice staffed by Mother Teresa's Missionary Sisters of Charity who care for AIDS victims. The congregation served by St. Wenceslaus Church continues to mirror the surrounding neighborhood.
nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital complex seems poised to expand further into the neighborhood with its proposal for a high-tech research center. With the resurgence of its surrounding community St. Wenceslaus seems to be poised to become the center of a new, more diverse East Baltimore.
A comment from Father Lyons, pastor of St. Wenceslaus:
This beautiful church structure continues to stand as a great symbol of God's presence and aCtivity among his people, especially those who may struggle against adversity. Because of declining membership, the cost of maintaining the church has become burdensome. Nonetheless, many parishioners, alumni, and friends of St. Wenceslaus have banded together to raise the needed funds to seal the exterior walls, re-set the priceless stained glass windows and restore the pipe orgall, tower clocks and bel/so With God's help, and the support of his people, St. Wenceslaus will continue to stand. as a sign of hope for generations to come.
taken from www.stwen.org/history3.html