2. St. Adalbert Church Complex - National Register Nomination

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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 St. Adalbert Church Complex St. Joseph, IN Name of Property County and State Section 7 page 5 St. Adalbert School (formerly Church-School), 1910-11, Italian Renaissance Revival Gault & Gault, architects. Desiring a Polish church for South Bend's expanding West Side, over 500 families supported the construction of the first St. Adalbert Church School building in 1909. Constructed in vitrified red brick and three stories tall, the church-school-convent measured 174' long by 63' wide. Costing $65,000, the working-class parishioners contributed not only meager savings, but also labor to keep costs low. The founding pastor, Rev. John F. Kubacki (1868-1951) oversaw construction, serving as the "contractor and manager." In accord with the Second Council of Baltimore's decree that all Roman Catholic parishes must sponsor religious schools, St. Adalbert was built as a combination church, school, and convent. The first floor, currently a cafeteria and social hall, was originally a church and could seat 900. The Moller organ from the original church is currently in a reconfigured installation in the present church. The school utilized the building’s second and third stories, with classrooms around a central hall and staircases and each end. At the west end of the building, a 1911 addition provided space for a convent for the Congregation of Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi (CSSF), popularly known as the Felicians, who came from the order’s motherhouse in Detroit to teach at the school. The church-school combination, however, was not intended to be permanent. It was a temporary arrangement that served educational and religious functions until the community could afford a proper church, at which point the original church could be incorporated into the school as a cafeteria or hall. The combination of educational, religious, and domestic functions led The South Bend Tribune to declare the first St. Adalbert as "unique" in its architecture style, and more similar to a "business block" than to a High Gothic church. While the rear of the building, with rows of large arched windows does bear a resemblance to factory architecture, the symmetrical tripartite façade with a side gable is striking. Two parapets flank a protruding central tower with brick quoins. The cornerstone is at the left foot of the central tower. Referencing the educational role of the building, Mark 10:14 is inscribed in the cornerstone in Polish and English: "Suffer the little children to come unto me." The main entrance portal, in Indiana limestone, is composed of jamb columns under a large central arch and archivolts. Shields with the church logo are under flanking entrance pilasters with simplified Doric capitals and a cornice extending to the tower's brick quoins. Above, engaged hexagonal columns demarcate each side of the arch. Over the keystone is a limestone square. Brick bands extend across the first story façade, topped with a limestone cornice that extends across the entire façade. Central brick arches run from the second to third stories. On the central tower, a limestone keystone caps the arch. The four corners of the engaged pilasters have undecorated limestone capitals and bases. Above the third story, the central tower extends, with two arches above the keystone. A smaller belltower with a steeple and cross marks the highest point of the façade. Bells were installed in the tower in 1912 and blessed by Bishop Józef Weber, C.R.. Engaged brick corbels support a limestone cornice. Four small brick towers rise above each quoin. The lateral façades are supported by buttresses and have three rows of arches. The first and second story windows have segmental brick arches and the third story windows have semi-