The Kaletta Statuary Company once dominated the religious sculpture and furnishings business in St. Louis from their shop on a stretch of the 3700 block of California Avenue in Gravois Park.
In fact, if you go into any Roman Catholic church in St. Louis built before the 1950s, you’ll probably see some of their work. Which makes it even more startling how quickly their end came, as Modernism came to architecture in the mid-Twentieth Century churches in the Archdiocese and other denominations. With just a couple of years, the proud company closed forever.
Update: It turns out that half of the building was also utilized by Emil Frei and Associates at some point.
Schuml1@att.net
I found work from your company at in an old St. Martin of Tours Parish Anniversary Directory. 1939-1949
Yes, Emil Frei shared the building with Kaletta from 1904 to 1909, when Emil Frei moved into a new larger building on S. Grand. Emil Frei and Kaletta were very close, displaying our works together at the 1904 World’s Fair and providing a ‘one stop shop’ storefront for churches. Across the US, I often find that churches where we did stained glass also have Kaletta statuary.
My grandfather J. Richard Bereswill worked for Kaletta from 1920’s to the 1970’s
He built alters in the St. Louis area, casted and repaired statues, and painted them.
After he retired from Kaletta’s , he did this in his garage until he died in 1990.
I worked with him in the garage 1985 to 1989.