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United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
<br />NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
<br />St. Adalbert Church Complex St. Joseph, IN
<br />Name of Property County and State
<br />Section 8 page 13
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<br />of Polish culture in South Bend, driving social movements and attracting high profile visitors.
<br />Today, St. Adalbert continues to serve first generation immigrants, mostly from Mexico, and
<br />honors its Polish and Mexican cultures as an educational, religious, and social space for the
<br />community.
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<br />Due to a rapidly increasing Polish immigration, parishioners at St. Hedwig Church, supported by
<br />Rev. Valentine Czyżewski (the founding pastor of South Bend Polonia and first Polish
<br />American Holy Cross priest), began making plans for a new parish in 1905, establishing the St.
<br />Adalbert Society to formally pursue the goal of constructing a new church on the west side of
<br />South Bend, closer to Singer, Oliver, Studebaker, and other manufacturers. In anticipation of an
<br />expanding Polish neighborhood, the founding parishioners named the area Krakówo after the
<br />eponymous Polish city. The West Side was then part of the Kankakee swamp and less desirable
<br />than the “Bogdarka” and “Złote Gore” neighborhoods, respectively meaning “God’s Gift” and
<br />“Golden Hills,” where earlier Polish immigrants settled. Quickly, the site for the church was
<br />soon surrounded by workers’ houses. Embracing a Polish American identity, the parish was
<br />officially founded on July 4, 1910, five years after the St. Adalbert Society first started
<br />organizing for a new church. In line with the Second Council of Baltimore’s decree that all
<br />Catholic parishes must sponsor religious schools, St. Adalbert was built as a church-school, with
<br />classrooms structured around a large central hall. The first and then only Polish American
<br />bishop, Rev. Paul Rhode, traveled to South Bend in 1910 to bless the church's cornerstone and
<br />again the next year for its opening. Officially recognized as a parish on July 4, 1910, the date
<br />recognized a hybrid Polish American identity. The opening of the church attracted 10,000 people
<br />to listen to Bishop Rhode and see the new building. In the following decade, St. Adalbert's
<br />continued to grow rapidly, quickly requiring additional space. In 1923, construction began on the
<br />present Gothic church, designed by Worthmann & Steinbach architects. At its opening in 1926,
<br />Bishop Noll declared it, "the most beautiful and most costly church in the diocese of Fort
<br />Wayne," an especially impressive feat considering the low wages earned by Poles in the factories
<br />of South Bend. The arrival of Bendix in the 1920s, spurred further growth to the city's west and
<br />increased jobs in the burgeoning automotive and aviation sectors. By 1937, the church had over
<br />6,000 parishioners and was the largest in South Bend. Dozens of church societies provided
<br />members with social and religious camaraderie and raised funds to decorate the interior of the
<br />church. When the new church was completed, its interior was largely unfinished, with the only
<br />painting a single altarpiece depicting the martyrdom of St. Adalbert. Over the following decades,
<br />virtually every surface of the church, including the sanctuary, windows, niches, and altars would
<br />be decorated with paintings, stained glass, statues, and devotional imagery.
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<br />ARCHITECTURE
<br />Polish immigrants to the United States constructed grandiose churches in the "Polish Cathedral
<br />style," characterized by multifunctional urban complexes of exuberant baroque, renaissance, and
<br />gothic revival architecture that reflected how the Catholic church absorbed and adapted the
<br />emigrants' traditional village lifeworld (okolica) to an industrial capitalist society. In Indiana, St.
<br />Adalbert is the most ambitious and best-preserved example of this architectural style and socio-
<br />cultural world. Fulfilling the functions of a convent, school, bank, library, social hall, church,
<br />and rectory, St. Adalbert was not just a center for religion, but for all Polish community life in
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