Christmas at Old St. Anne
One of Milwaukee's central city parishes closed in the 1990s was St. Anne, where I was baptized (long before the 1990s). Now even the
St. Anne's Church & School Memorial Web Site seems to be gone. But thanks to the
Internet Archive, we can still see the church ready for Christmas.
The parish name is carried on by
St. Anne in Pleasant Prairie.
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10 comments:
Wowza!!
Most of the windows from St. Anne were installed at St. Lucy in Racine. Adoration there 3 days a week, so quite the inspirational environment
Was this church ever the victim of a wreckovation or could one still find it, minus the stain glass windows, intact on the inside?
I was an altar server here in 1949-1950. Our fourth grade teacher, Sister Mary Venard SSND is still living at Elm Grove, taught the servers! There was also a basement church. Four priests were assigned. Sometimes there were 7 Masses on Sundays. The church and school were located on 36th Street between Mieneke and Wright. St Thomas Aquinas and St Leo closed at the same time, during the "reign" of Abp Weakland.
Looks very old style church. ! Before Vatican ll my Dad used to go on Sunday to "catch a side altar Mass". Visiting priests when there were plenty to go around. Side altar Mass was quick and no sermon, usually. We had four chapels in my home Church. One does not hear that phrase at all now.
St Anne is now Metropolitan Memorial Baptist church, in a Black Baptist denomination. The church, while it was Catholic, was never wreckovated. Everything inside has been painted over and is white with clear glass windows. The altars were removed and the main altar serves the same role in one of the diocesan cathedrals in Montana. I don't know what happened to the baldachino. In the basement was also a Lourdes Grotto. I don't know what happened to it. The pictures above the side altars were mosaics.
Made all my sacraments there and went to school there until the riots of 1967. My brothers were altar boys. My father who owned Alloy's Alleys on 30th and North ave would take me to Midnight Christmas mass every year, just the two of us. The masses were in Latin and we were required to attend before school daily at 7am which I was routinely late for so sat out on the front steps for fear of the wrath of the nuns. I loved that church and I miss it.
Msgr Brunner, Father Leak, Father Endijan? Father Begin? Teachers at St Anne's: Sister Lenita, Sr. Gabriel Mary, Mrs. England,
Mr. Pogorelc, Sister Rose Martin. These are the priests and teachers I remember from my years at St. Anne's, 1956-1962 after which our family left Milwaukee. Underneath the church parking lot was a tunnel between the school and church from which we spilled into the basement of the church where there was a large chapel. All good years then. After we left Milwaukee my dad sent the Monsignor a donation of $100. 00 which seemed an enormous sum in those days. It was a gesture of thanks for all the church did for us. No tuition was charged for enrolling at St. Anne's school. My dad did pay for our books which were passed from one kid to the next. Of course, my mother was fielcely protective of her children and I do recall her nearly duking it out with Sister Rose Martin after the good sister tried to smack me on my Confirmation day. (I had tried to fly like an angel in my white confirmaion robes.) I was so proud of my mom. A threat to send me to public school was all it took for Sr. Rose M to back off.
I would love to visit the old church on 36th St and perhaps one day I will.
I attended the parish in the early 1970's, and made my First Communion there. Msgr. Bronner, Fr. Marve Knighton, Sr. Mary Ralph, Sr. Mary Ellen (School Sisters of Notre Dame). Rectory always had at least 4 priests and the convent was across the street on the corner. The Sugar Shack was across the street from the school.
The dome paintings, Immaculate Conception painting, 12 Apsotles portraits, the Blessed Mother side altar mosaic and the sanctuary lamp are all now currently in St. Mary Cathedral in Fargo, ND: http://cathedralofstmary.com/
When St. John's Cathedral suffered fire damage, St. Anne's was used for ordinations.
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