| Atchison, Kansas - St. Benedict's Abbey in
Atchison, Kansas is the local center of the Catholic Order of St. Benedict,
a global religious community whose first members arrived in Atchison in
1858. The present Abbey was built in 1928 and is the home of the monks
who provide faculty and administration for Benedictine College.
The Abbey Church was completed
in 1957 and serves the students of Benedictine College, It is 270' long
and 118' wide. |
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| Atchison, Kansas - Choir Chapel in the Monastery
of Mount St. Scholastica Benedictine
Sisters was built in 1900 and the high backed wooden seats lining
the room remind me of the portion of European cathedrals which is called
the choir or the chancel. The tall stained glass windows along the sides
were installed in the late 1940s and are an early blending of traditional
with mid-century modern. |
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| Atchison, Kansas - St.
Benedict's Catholic Church is a parish of
the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas. The cornerstone for
the present building was laid August 26, 1866. It was built around the
earlier Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, which held its first Mass on
December 25, 1858. St. Benedict's church is at the southwest corner of
Benedictine College. Prior to 1957, St. Benedict's was the Abbey Church,
but it was replaced by the church above. |
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| Atchison, Kansas - St.
Patrick's Catholic Church, a few miles south of Atchison, Kansas
is a lovely old stone church. St. Patrick's parish was established by German
and Irish immigrants in 1857, and a wooden church was competed in 1859.
The wooden structure was destroyed by a tornado in 1861 and replaced with
a 20 x 30' log building. The present church building was completed in 1866. |
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| Atchison, Kansas - St. Scholastica Chapel at Mount
St. Scholastica Benedictine Sisters was built in 1933. It has magnificent
marble columns and the there is a large nautilus fossil in one of the columns.
There is a lovely rose window at the rear of the chapel and seven of the
beautiful stained glass windows honor martyred women saints. |
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| Atchison, Kansas - Trinity
Episcopal Church in Atchison, Kansas was first organized
in 1857 and the parish was originally named the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.
The current attractive stone building was completed in 1868.
The church has particularly beautiful stained glass windows,
three of which were created by Louis C. Tiffany. Even cooler is the baptismal
font where Amelia Earhart was baptized in October 1897. |
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| Baldwin, Kansas - Clarice
L. Osborne Memorial Chapel at Baker University
in Baldwin City was originally constructed in Sproxton, England in 1864
and was the home to the Methodist congregation of Sproxton, England for
124 years. After several years of disuse, it was acquired by Baker
University, dismantled and shipped to Baldwin City where it was reassembled.
Lady Margaret Thatcher assisted in the dedication because her father Alfred
had been a lay preacher who had occasionally preached in the Sproxton chapel
with his daughter Margaret in attendance. |
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| Centerville, Kansas - St.
Philippine Duchesne Historical & Memorial Park was the location
of St. Mary's Mission, which was also known as Sugar Creek Mission. It
was established in 1838 by the United States government as a destination
for the forced moving of nearly 900 Potawatomi Indians from Michigan &
northern Indiana on a march known as "The Trail of Death."
Rose Philippine Duchesne was a Catholic sister
who ministered to the Potawatomi people. She was beatified in 1940 and
canonized in 1988. |
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| Chapman, Kansas - St.
Patrick's Mission Church was constructed in
the frontier settlement of Chapman's Creek in the early 1860s. The Catholic
mission served Irish settlers and Native Americans for about 20 years and
served as a school and community meeting place at various times over the
years. The church was destroyed by a tornado in 2008 and the St. Patrick's
Chapel memorial using the original stone was completed in 2010. |
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| Colby, Kansas - The Lone
Star Church was built in 1915 by Danish settlers. It was donated
to the Prairie Museum of Art and History in 1988 and moved 22 miles to
the museum. The congregation of Colby's First Presbyterian Church worships
here near Father's Day each year. It is available for weddings. |
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| Colwich, Kansas - St.
Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church is a historic
Romanesque church which was built from 1903-1906, but has been remodeled
and made more ornate over the years. St. Mark was added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1991. |
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| Concordia, Kansas - The Nazareth
Motherhouse was built in 1903 by the Sisters of St. Joseph. At
one time there were more than 600 Sisters, but today there are around 160
in the United States and Brazil. The Sisters of St. Joseph Sacred Heart
Chapel (at the left in the photo) was added to the Motherhouse in 1907. |
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| Concordia, Kansas - Our
Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church is an unusual, castle shaped
church which is constructed from both post rock and Cloud County shell
rock. The oldest parts of the church were completed in 1879, but over the
years the building has been expanded several times. It was the Cathedral
for the Diocese of Concordia from 1887 until the Diocesan See was moved
to Salina in 1945. |
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| Damar, Kansas - St. Joseph's
Catholic Church is open to visitors 7 days
a week. The towers at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Damar were completed
in 1913, but the first mass wasn't celebrated until 1917. Some of the nicest
features at St. Joseph's were added during renovation in the 1940s and
early 1950s. |
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| Danville, Kansas - Immaculate
Conception Catholic Church, in Danville, Kansas
was constructed from 1904 to 1907. The Gothic-Romanesque church has a 126'
tall bell tower. As the local population shrank in more recent times, Immaculate
Conception was merged with catholic churches in the communities of Harper
and Anthony to create the St. Joan of Arc parish. |
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| Doniphan, Kansas - St. John the Baptist Oratory
has served the unincorporated community of
Doniphan, Kansas for
over 150 years. Part of the present brick building was built in 1867, though
the structure was enlarged in 1891. The stained glass windows were added
in 1892. |
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| Greenbush, Kansas - St.
Aloysius Church Historic Site in the unincorporated community of
Greenbush has a church and a church ruins sitting almost side by side.
The 1887 St. Aloysius Church was replaced by a larger building in 1907,
but the newer building was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1982 and
the congregation returned to the older building. The registered Kansas
state historic site is very picturesque. |
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| Hays, Kansas - St.
Joseph Catholic Church
is just one of the magnificent stone churches in Ellis County. Like many
of today's churches, it was the 3rd church built at its location by the
Volga German speaking immigrants and was built when the area was at its
peak. The interior is not as ornate as many of the nearby Catholic churches,
but the building is impressive and and there is an interesting history. |
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| Hays, Kansas - Stone
Church was the home of First Presbyterian Church and is the oldest
existing church building in Ellis County. The congregation grew over the
years and from 1911-13 the tower and an east wing were added. In 1926,
a much larger formal classical red brick building was added to the east
end of the old church. Both buildings were used by the congregation until
1975 when an entirely different church was built. The 1879 and 1926 churches
are now the home of the Ellis County Historical Society Museum. |
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| Hutchinson, Kansas - St.
Teresa Catholic Church was dedicated in 1911.
The red brick Romanesque Revival church was designed by Emanuel L. Masqueray
and has asymmetrical towers of 70 and 115 feet. 500 people attended the
dedication while another 1,000 waited outside. The completed and furnished
church cost $51,000 including $1,000 for the high altar and $900 for the
Stations of the Cross. |
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Kansas City, Kansas - St.
John the Baptist Catholic Church is an ethnic Croatian parish
established by immigrants residing in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood
of Kansas City, Kansas in 1900.
The altars and pulpit at St. John the Baptist Catholic
Church were made in Austria. The original bell is still in the bell tower
and is inscribed in Croatian with "The Living I Summon, the Dead I Mourn,
the Thunder I Disperse." The stained glass windows were made at the Skarda
factory in Berne, Switzerland. |
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| Kelly, Kansas - St.
Bede's Parish was organized in the fall of 1901. The first church
was built in 1902, but he wood frame building burnt to the ground in 1913.
The cornerstone of the present building was laid the same year and it was
completed and dedicated on October 10, 1915.
A few years ago a friend told me that this tiny community
had a huge Catholic Church and I finally checked it out in 2014. Wow! This
German Gothic inspired limestone building is very ornate, inside and out. |
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| Lawrence, Kansas - The Festival
of Nativities is the reason that Centenary United Methodist
Church is included on this page. On weekends in December, the church
displays hundreds of nativity sets in a wide variety of styles and sizes.
The overall impact is quite impressive. The congregation begins decorating
the church three days a week following Halloween. The Centenary nativity
collection is so large that not all of it is displayed every year. |
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| Leavenworth, Kansas - Built in 1893, the Chapel
of the Veterans is inspired by a Gothic chapel in England. The
Chapel is constructed from unusually long, thin clay bricks and sandstone.
The tower has eleven tubular bells (rarely used) and three gargoyles. The
lower level of the Chapel of the Veterans, with an entrance on the end,
is the Catholic chapel named the Holy Ghost Chapel. The upper level is
the Protestant chapel called Immanuel Chapel. |
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| Leavenworth County, Kansas - Little
Stranger Church is believed to be the 2nd oldest wood frame house
of worship remaining in the state of Kansas. The first service was held
on May 12, 1868, though the congregation began meeting ten years earlier
in a log schoolhouse located on Little Stranger Creek. The members of the
congregation built the church with lumber sawn at a local lumberyard, from
nearby cottonwood trees |
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| Lenexa, Kansas - This is another church included
on this page for an event. The St.
Petka Serbian Food Festival and Bazaar at St. George Serbian
Orthodox Church started over 30 years ago as a very small bake sale.
Over the years, the ladies of the church started preparing the pastries
and other dishes at the hall. The festival now fills an entire day on the
Saturday before Thanksgiving and is attended by more than two thousand
people from all over the Kansas City metropolitan area. Tours of the church
are also available. |
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| Liebenthal, Kansas - St.
Joseph's Catholic Church was established in 1876 by German speaking
Russian immigrants from the Volga region of the Ukraine in Russia. The
present building was designed by the German born church architect, Viktor
Klutho, from St. Louis and built by the members of the community from native
post rock. The construction took three years and the new church was dedicated
on May 28, 1905. |
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| Marion, Kansas - The building housing the Marion
Historical Museum was constructed in 1887 for the First Baptist
Church and served as a house of worship until the mid 1950s. It was
then given to Marion County for use as a museum and dedicated on Old Settler's
Day in 1961. |
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| McCracken, Kansas - Beautiful
St.
Mary's Church is no longer active, but is being preserved by a
local foundation. There is no regular mass, but the church is still used
for occasional weddings, funerals and other events. |
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| Munjor, Kansas - The native stone St.
Francis of Assisi Catholic Church was destroyed by fire in 1932,
but over time, the building was rebuilt with almost the same external appearance,
but no steeple and the interior columns which once supported the ceiling
were replaced by a vaulted ceiling. |
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| New Almelo, Kansas - St.
Joseph Catholic Church is a striking stone church which was constructed
on a hill in 1908 and stands out as you approach the tiny community from
the east. It was the fourth church at this location and the first mass
was celebrated on October 11, 1878. |
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| Nicodemus, Kansas - Nicodemus was established
in July, 1877 by Negro "exodusters" from Kentucky. It was named after the
first black slave to purchase his freedom in the United States. There are
about 40 residents today, as well as several buildings being maintained
by the National Park Service. Nicodemus
First Baptist Church was completed in 1907 and was built around
an earlier and smaller church. Nicodemus African Methodist Episcopal
Church was built in 1885 of limestone and was closed for religious
services in the 1950s. |
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| Osawatomie, Kansas - The First Congregational
Church of Osawatomie was built in 1861 by the John Brown's brother-in-law,
the Reverend Samuel Adair. The church was renovated and rededicated on
July 14, 1963, as an all faith chapel which is is now used for special
events and weddings. It is known as the Old Stone Church
and still
contains the original furniture and fixtures.
315 6th Street, Osawatomie, Kansas 66064 (913) 755-4384 |
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| Park, Kansas - Although the parish began in 1898,
Sacred
Heart Catholic Church has dominated this western Kansas countryside
since 1923. Today the church steeple is visible from I-70 for miles. Although
Sacred Heart has been nicknamed the "Cathedral of the West," Sacred Heart
Catholic Church is not the seat of a bishop and is not a cathedral. It
is still beautiful and worth a brief visit when passing through Kansas
on highway I-70. |
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| Pfeifer, Kansas - Holy
Cross Shrine is a magnificent 1918 church building which towers
165 feet above the handful of homes remaining in the town surrounding it.
Although the Catholic parish served by Holy Cross Church was dissolved
in 1993, the building itself remains open to the public on a daily basis.
The few remaining parishioners formed Holy Cross Charities, a non-profit
corporation that depends solely upon donations to maintain the church and
nearby cemetery. The nearby Holy Cross
Cemetery has many interesting ornate Volga German iron crosses
and is worth a special visit. |
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| Pilsen, Kansas - St.
John Nepomucene Catholic Church in the small unincorporated community
of Pilsen is a beautiful church with a steeple that stands 111'
above the surrounding area. The church is normally open from mid-morning
through the afternoon and Mass is conducted at 9 AM on Thursdays and 10:30
AM on Sundays. Tours are also available of the adjacent museum devoted
to
Father Emil J. Kapaun, who grew
up in this church, was briefly its pastor and has started the process toward
being declared a saint. |
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| Piqua, Kansas - St.
Martin of Tours Parish was established in 1884, 3 years before
the Diocese of Wichita. The present brick church building was dedicated
November 12, 1922. Although regular mass is no longer celebrated at the
beautiful Catholic Church, the building is still maintained and open to
the public.
The interesting old St.
Martin's Cemetery is located 200 yards behind St. Martin's church
and includes a priests' mound. |
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| Schoenchen, Kansas - Like many of the large stone
churches in western Kansas, St. Anthony Church
was the third building is to serve this Catholic parish. Construction of
the beautiful present building began in 1900, using native stone, quarried
in the area by members of the congregation. The church was dedicated on
June 13, 1901. |
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| Shawnee, Kansas - Monticello United Methodist
Church started as a Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation was
formed in 1880 by German and American Methodists. Their first church was
struck by lightning and burned in 1894. The current Gothic Revival church
was erected in the same year. |
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| St. Benedict, Kansas - The present Saint
Mary's Catholic Church is the 4th church that was built in this
small community. It was constructed from 1891-1894, replacing a 40 by 90
feet structure built in 1880. St. Mary's Parish was established in 1859.
St. Mary's Church has nearly 3,000 square feet of window space consisting
of 17 large windows, two of medium size and six round windows, each six
feet in diameter. Some of the windows are of intricate designed art glass,
and some are stained glass. |
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| St. Joseph, Kansas - St.
Joseph Catholic Church is no longer consecrated, but the Guardians
of The St. Joseph Church Foundation is preserving the beautiful 1910 brick
church. |
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| St. Paul, Kansas - The square tower of Saint
Francis de Hieronymo Catholic Church is visible for miles as you
approach St. Paul, Kansas. The handsome stone church was completed
in 1884, but the parish is much older, predating the community of St. Paul.
It took 12 years to construct the church from native sandstone quarried
near St. Paul. The main bell tower was replaced in 2005, after it broke
off above the roof line in heavy winds. |
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| Scipio, Kansas - St.
Boniface Catholic Church (north of Garnett) was built by German
immigrants in 1891. The limestone church replaced a wooden church which
was closer to St. Boniface Cemetery. The lovely church rises above the
surrounding trees and a handful of nearby dwellings. It appears to stand
alone when viewed from U. S. Highway 59, two miles away. Open all the time. |
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| Topeka, Kansas - First
Presbyterian Church was organized in 1859. The present (1884) building
is very handsome, with hand carved furnishings which were installed in
1935. The best known features of the building are the 100 year old Tiffany
Windows. Louis Tiffany visited Topeka and planned the windows which
were installed in 1911 at a cost of $14,000. |
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| Topeka, Kansas - Located less than a block off
I-70 in downtown Topeka, St.
Joseph Catholic Church is one of the most visible churches in the
state of Kansas. Also known as St. Joseph German Catholic Church, the congregation
was founded in 1887 to serve Topeka's German and Volga German Russian (Deutsche
aus Russland) community |
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| Topeka, Kansas - The
United Methodist Church of Everest, Kansas was built near Everest
by the Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal congregation in 1880. Four years
later it was moved by wagons and mule teams to a new location within the
city of Everest. When the congregation was dissolved in 2001, the church
was moved 60 miles to Old Prairie Town at Ward-Meade Park in Topeka.
In addition to being an exhibit in the park, the building can be rented
for small weddings. |
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| Valley
Falls, Kansas - The Historical
Shrine Church is believed to have been the first Lutheran Church
built west of the Missouri River. Built in 1857, it may be the oldest Lutheran
Church building west of the Mississippi River and the oldest wooden frame
house of worship in Kansas. |
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| Victoria, Kansas - The "Cathedral
of the Plains" is Saint Fidelis Catholic Church. It has seating
for 1,100 people, which, at the time of it's dedication, made it the largest
church west of the Mississippi River. The church is 220 feet long, 110
feet wide at the transepts and 75 feet at the nave. Its ceiling is 44 feet
above the ground and the towers are 141 feet tall. After several years
of petition, St. Fidelis was named a minor Basilica in 2014. |
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| Victoria, Kansas - The ruins of Sacred
Heart Church, 7 miles north of Victoria, Kansas, are a picturesque
stone and brick ruins. Sacred Heart church was closed in 1968 due to declining
membership and was destroyed in a fire on October 12, 1998. |
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| Wichita, Kansas - The Cathedral
of the Immaculate Conception, popularly known as St. Mary's Cathedral,
is among the oldest churches in Wichita. The first Catholic Church in Wichita
was built in 1872. Construction on the cathedral began in 1906 and it was
dedicated September 19, 1912. |
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| Wichita, Kansas - The Kansas
African American Museum occupies a handsome building which was
the home of Calvary Baptist Church from 1917 to 1972. When Calvary
Baptist Church moved to a different building in 1972, the community formed
the First National Black Historical Society in 1973 to preserve this part
of Wichita's Black heritage. Thanks to their work, the building was placed
on the the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and in 1997, became
the Kansas African American Museum. |
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| Wilson, Kansas - The United Methodist Church
at 2404 Avenue F in Wilson was built in 1888. It is just one of many beautiful
stone buildings in Wilson, which calls itself the "Czech Capital of Kansas."
Photos of many of the other buildings are on our Wilson,
Kansas Page. |
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| Wilson, Kansas - St.
Wenceslaus Catholic Church now occupies the third building to serve
the parish, which was formed in 1882. The first church was completed in
1885. The present building was completed in 1912, using the foundation
and walls of the second church, which burned in 1910. The sanctuary of
the present building was also damaged by fire (in 1942), but soon repaired. |
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| Windthorst, Kansas - Although
Immaculate
Heart of Mary Church no longer serves a congregation, it is preserved
as a National Historic Site. Windthorst was a small community which was
founded by German immigrant families who moved west from Cincinnati, Ohio
in 1878. It is a red brick brick Gothic Romanesque Revival church with
a gable facade fronted by a 125' projecting steeple. Buttresses support
the church on each side. The church was not stripped of its statuary and
ornamentation after the Second Vatican Council in 1963 and is one of the
most ornate churches in Kansas. |
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