Update: I went by the church again in July of 2023. Closed in the round of parish mergers in 2023. 

St. Barbara’s, opened in 1893, and closed in 1992, just one year shy of its one-hundredth anniversary, was reborn as St. Augustine’s, as the name was no longer being used for the older parish in St. Louis Place.

Another beautiful example of a German Gothic-style Hallkirche, the church must have been practically out in the middle of nowhere in the 1890s. Perhaps it was more settled out this way back then than I realize.

The parish is alive and well, having recently completed a renovation project that has fixed deteriorating masonry. It looks like they could still use your help to fix some missing shingles on the roof.

The million dollar question for me is whether the spire, already so lofty, was ever completed. Was it torn down, to that point, like St. Liborius, or was it never completed like Immaculate Conception?

The spire reminds me of the St. Martin’s Church in Landshut, Germany.

Sadly, what was almost certainly part of the church grounds is now abandoned. Perhaps it is the old convent for the sisters who taught at the school.

St. Rose of Lima and St. Edward’s were other North Side parishes closed in the consolidation and creation of this new St. Augustine’s parish in 1992.