First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church was built in 1886 on what is now the News-Leader's parking lot

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  These old steps that lead nowhere, set into the grass at the edge of the News-Leader?s parking lot, once carried parishioners in the late 1800s and early 1900s into the church that stood on this spot. It took some research to find evidence in maps and old photos to confirm that the church once stood here. (Some old documents mistakenly placed it on a different corner.)/News-Leader

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  An undated photo of Immaculate Conception is included in the book, ?The Catholic Church in Southern Missouri? by Loretta Pastva. It was published for the 50th anniversary of the diocese in 2006./News-Leader

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  An aerial photo from the late 1960s reveals the outline in the grass of the former Immaculate Conception Church. The Springfield News-Leader building is in the upper-left portion of the photo./News-Leader

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  A statue of Mary that once stood in the old Immaculate Conception Church still stands today in the current church./News-Leader

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  When you drive north on Campbell Avenue today, this is what you see at the northeast corner of Campbell and Tampa Street. This corner, one block south of Chestnut Expressway, is where the old Immaculate Conception Catholic Church once stood./News-Leader

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  An aerial photo of Springfield from about 1950 ? shot by Betty Love ? includes the Immaculate Conception Church in the upper right corner. The street running top left to bottom right is Main Avenue. One block over, far right, is Campbell Avenue. The church sits on the corner that, today, is part of the News-Leader?s back parking lot./History Museum on the Square

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  An aerial photo of Springfield from the 1950s shows the Immaculate Conception Church at the northeast corner of Campbell Avenue and Pine Street (now Tampa Street)./News-Leader file photo

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  Immaculate Conception Church on Sept. 9, 1955, two days before its final mass. The church stood on the northeast corner of Campbell Avenue and Pine Street (now Tampa Street)./History Museum on the Square

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  This old photo shows the interior of the original Immaculate Conception Church on Campbell Avenue, built in 1886./Immaculate Conception Church

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  A gift to the Immaculate Conception Church on the 50th anniversary of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocesse in 2006. An image of the old Immaculate Conception Church is included./Immaculate Conception Church

  

• First Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

  A statue of Mary that once stood in the old Immaculate Conception Church still stands today in the current church./Cliff Sain/News-Leader

  

by Cliff Sain, News-Leader

If you drive by the Springfield News-Leader on Campbell Avenue, you may notice a set of concrete steps, set into the grass just north of Tampa Street and leading nowhere.

They appear unremarkable ? nothing more than a curiosity.

However, they are a relic of a building from Springfield?s first Catholic parish, Immaculate Conception.

These old steps that lead nowhere, set into the grass at the edge of the News-Leader?s parking lot, once carried parishioners in the late 1800s and early 1900s into the church that stood on this spot. It took some research to find evidence in maps and old photos to confirm that the church once stood here. (Some old documents mistakenly placed it on a different corner.) / News-Leader

Today, the crumbling steps aren?t accessible. A chain-link fence stretches across the length of the stairs, and a storage shed stands nearby.

But decades ago, they were part of the main entryway to the first Immaculate Conception Catholic church, completed in 1886 and torn down in 1957.

For more than 70 years, families followed the steps to Mass, to confession, to Easter service and to Christmas Eve Mass. Newly married couples carefully descended the steps while hiding their faces from hurled handfuls of rice. Somber community members ascended the stairs to pay final respects at funerals.

According to a document at the History Museum on the Square, written in 1957 by Mary D. Schuerer from information compiled in 1915 by Jonathan Fairbanks and Clyde Tuck, the Immaculate Conception parish was founded in 1866 by the St. Louis Diocese.

The parish?s first Mass was celebrated at the home of William Dailey on March 6, 1866. The home was on the east side of Boonville Avenue, somewhere north of the Jordan River.

The building was a massive building of Gothic architecture.

An undated photo of Immaculate Conception is included in the book, ?The Catholic Church in Southern Missouri? by Loretta Pastva. It was published for the 50th anniversary of the diocese in 2006. / News-Leader

Before a permanent church was built, the parish also held Mass in a former Baptist church on South Avenue, and in the Phelps Building, near where the Woodruff Building stands downtown.

A 30 feet by 60 feet building was then constructed on the southwest corner of Campbell Avenue and Tampa Street (called Pine Street at the time) in 1868 to be used as a church. The building was later moved to the north side of Pine Street and became a parochial school.

The land for the Immaculate Conception church ? at the northeast corner of that intersection ? was purchased in 1874 for $1,100.

The church foundation was dug in August 1882, and the cornerstone was laid in the spring of 1884. Enclosed was a metal time capsule box. (When the church was razed 73 years later, and the rusted box opened, it contained only crumbled papers that appeared to include an 1882 newspaper telling about the dedication and a list of the original parishioners.)

An aerial photo from the late 1960s reveals the outline in the grass of the former Immaculate Conception Church. The Springfield News-Leader building is in the upper-left portion of the photo. / News-Leader

Selections of the document from the museum describe the old church this way:

?The building was a massive building of Gothic architecture, with high steeple supported by four flying buttresses with plain cross towering 12 feet. A magnificient (sic) structure made entirely of red brick, tile entrance and translucent stained glass windows. The interior was finished in yellow pine and cherry wood. The wood paneled ceiling was made with massive beams beautifully arched, and extremely high. Had three high altars finely finished and made by then local cabinet men. The main middle altar enthroning the statue of the ?Immaculate Conception? was donated by Mr. Richard Evers, a local lumber dealer, side altars by other men here. August Lohmeyer, then a local cabinet maker did much of the work on the altars.?

A statue of Mary that once stood in the old Immaculate Conception Church still stands today in the current church. / News-Leader

According to Sharon Weidelman, director of family life ministries and religion educator at the current Immaculate Conception church at 3555 S. Fremont Ave., the original Immaculate Conception church celebrated its first Mass on Aug. 15, 1886.

The day was chosen because Aug. 15 is the feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, for whom the parish was named. In fact, she said, as the parish has moved into newer buildings over the years, each one celebrated its first Mass on that day.

The final Mass in the first building was celebrated Sept. 11, 1955, and the structure was demolished in 1957. The museum document said the land was purchased by the newspaper. Weidelman said the building closed because it had become structurally unsound.

?It wasn?t safe to hold Mass there,? she said.

This action pushed parish members to attend other Catholic churches until a new Immaculate Conception was built in 1957 on the site of the current Mercy Hospital. The parish moved again to its current church home on Fremont, where the first Mass was celebrated Aug. 15, 1981. The building was dedicated on Aug. 30.

Source: http://data.news-leader.com/trueozarks/profile/21/First%20Immaculate%20Conception%20Catholic%20Church

Lone Star College 42 louisville basketball Ready for Love ncaa annette funicello joel osteen