There’s nothing but industrial wasteland to see now where the Polish parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa once stood from 1907 to 1957, swept away by the failed urban renewal plan for the Kosciusko neighborhood. But for a half century, the scrappy church thrived among the tenements and factories that filled the rough and tumble area near the riverfront.

Like we saw with the early St. Agatha’s, St. Ambrose, St. Engelbert’s and St. Hedwig’s (itself a Polish national church), Our Lady featured classrooms on the first floor and the sanctuary on the second floor. However, thanks to documents from the Archdiocese’s archives, I could confirm it occupied a previously constructed building purchased from the First German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in 1907. Our Lady was not a wealthy parish, and it reminds me of St. Raymond’s and St. Anthony the Hermit, which were both built inside repurposed residential structures in low income neighborhoods near the riverfront. The rectory, seen above next door, is certainly a former two-family flat.

The fire insurance map shows just how much industry and houses were intermingled. The church is on the far left, circled in red. Many of the men worked at the American Car Foundry.

Two images provided by the Archives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis give us an idea of the interior of the sanctuary on the second floor. The parish takes its name from the famous shrine in Jasna Góra, Poland, which holds the miraculous image of the Black Madonna, said to be the original portrait painted by St. Luke of the Virgin.

I have no idea how I stumbled across this parish. It certainly wasn’t because I knew how to spell it! It saddens me that so much history has been swept away and is now largely being forgotten. I wonder how many people are still alive that attended this church, in a neighborhood that was annihilated so long ago. Judging from group photos I examined, despite the small size of the church, it was a large congregation. I wonder where everyone went.