I've been to at least one service in every one of the churches in Manawa, but I regularly celebrated mass with my family at Sacred Heart for several years, so it's the most familiar church to me.
The church was built in 1894, and this picture must've been taken not too long after, to judge from the unpaved road. I'd guess it belongs to the raft of post card photos taken between 1902-1908.
As you can see, the building is made of brick and some cut stone, so it survivied the rash of fires that seemed to sweep away many of the buildings in Manawa every so often. I don't think I'm wrong to say that it's the oldest surviving brick church in town:
The second St. Paul's Lutheran church in Manawa (the first was a log cabin), built in 1890, would've been the oldest brick church, but it was demolished in 1957 to make way for a larger, more modern-looking church. A pity, I'd have to say, because the old church was a very pretty building.
The Methodist Evangelical church, as delicately beautiful as it is, is a wood-frame building — which makes its survival even more remarkable and worth mentioning (I'll do it again when you get to that page).
And Zion Lutheran is a completely modern church, built in 1960.
The Sacred Heart rectory you see in these pictures was replaced in 1923 with brick building.
The second photo is a view of the front of the church building looking east.
Page maintained by Dave Okonski :: last update 7 March 2004