St. Charles Seminary

Last updated
St. Charles Seminary and Chapel
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the afternoon.jpg
The former Seminary in 2010
USA Ohio location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Carthagena, Ohio
Coordinates 40°25′57″N84°33′48″W / 40.43250°N 84.56333°W / 40.43250; -84.56333
Area150 acres (61 ha)
Built1906 (1906)
Architectural styleGothic, Romanesque
MPS Cross-Tipped Churches of Ohio TR
NRHP reference No. 79002840 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 26, 1979

St. Charles Seminary is a former American Catholic seminary, founded by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1861 in Carthagena, Ohio. The seminary closed in 1969 and is now a retirement center for clergy and lay people. The seminary, chapel, and five other buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [1]

Contents

History

The first buildings on the site of Saint Charles Seminary were the former buildings of the Emlen Institution, a boarding school for African-American and Native American youth funded from a bequest from Samuel Powers Emlen Jr., a Quaker. [2] The institute sold its Ohio property and moved to Solebury in 1857. [3] [4]

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood had arrived in Ohio in 1844 to begin serving German-speaking settlers living there. In 1861 they purchased 200 acres of land and the former Emlen Institute to serve as a seminary for the candidates to their religious congregation, which they then placed under the patronage of St. Charles Borromeo. [5]

The current seminary building was constructed over a six-year period in the 1920s. It is a three-story building with a 371-foot frontage, flanked by two 140-foot wings. The chapel was built by the sons of Ohio steepled-church designer Anton De Curtins. [6]

The seminary closed in 1969 as a consequence of declining enrollment. Theology students for the congregation now study at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. [7]

Present day

In order to accommodate the retiring priests and Religious Brothers of the congregation, the former seminary was converted into the St. Charles Center, a retirement home for them. As this need peaked in 1980s and 1990s, the center became converted into a senior living center for lay people as well. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Patrick's College, Maynooth</span> Catholic college and pontifical university in County Kildare, Ireland

St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, is the "National Seminary for Ireland", and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, 24 km (15 mi) from Dublin, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Theological Seminary</span> Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, United States

Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missionaries of the Precious Blood</span>

The Missionaries of the Precious Blood is a Catholic community of priests and brothers. The society was founded by Saint Gaspar del Bufalo in 1815.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangor Theological Seminary</span> United States historic place

Bangor Theological Seminary was an ecumenical seminary, founded in 1814, in the Congregational tradition of the United Church of Christ. Located in Bangor, Maine, and Portland, Maine, it was the only accredited graduate school of religion in Northern New England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walnut Hills United Presbyterian Church</span> Historic church tower

Walnut Hills United Presbyterian Church is a historic church tower in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The last remnant of a landmark church building, it was designed by a leading Cincinnati architect and built in the 1880s. Although named a historic site a century after its construction, the building was mostly destroyed after extensive neglect caused restoration to become prohibitively expensive.

Carthagena is an unincorporated community in Mercer County, Ohio, United States. Established by African Americans, it was home to an agricultural and industrial boarding school for African American and Indian orphans. It has an elevation of 909 feet (277 m) and is located at 40°26′12″N84°33′36″W.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Dwenger</span> American prelate

Joseph Gregory Dwenger C.P.P.S was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana from 1872 to 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Henry's Catholic Church (St. Henry, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

St. Henry's Catholic Church is an historic Roman Catholic church in St. Henry, Ohio, United States. Built in the late nineteenth century, it remains the home of a functioning congregation, and it has been recognized as a historically significant building because of its architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DeCurtins</span> American architect

The DeCurtins family, sometimes written De Curtins, were involved in Midwestern U.S. church architecture. Anton De Curtins was a Swiss immigrant who lived in Carthagena, Ohio and designed several Gothic Revival architecture churches in Mercer County, Ohio, as well as rectories, schools and residences. Anton was a master carpenter, and with his sons he directed the building and decorating of the steepled churches that "still shine across the surrounding flatness of the Northwestern Ohio landscape".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Maria Stein, Ohio)</span> Church in Ohio, United States

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, United States. Located in the unincorporated community of Maria Stein, it is the home of an active congregation and has been recognized as a historic site because of its well-preserved late nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Family Catholic Church (Frenchtown, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

Holy Family Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Wayne Township, Darke County, Ohio, United States. Located in the unincorporated community of Frenchtown, it houses an active congregation, and it has been accorded historic site status because of its well-preserved Gothic Revival architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Precious Blood Catholic Church (Chickasaw, Ohio)</span> Historic church in Ohio, United States

Precious Blood Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic parish in Chickasaw, Ohio, United States. Erected in 1903 and still an active parish, the church historically owned two buildings constructed in its early years that have been designated as historic sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Aloysius Catholic Church (Carthagena, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

St. Aloysius Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Carthagena, an unincorporated community in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, United States. Built in the late nineteenth century, it remains the home of an active parish, and it has been designated a historic site because of its well-preserved architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church</span> United States historic place

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church is a historic Catholic church in Cassella, an unincorporated community in Mercer County, Ohio, United States. One of several Catholic churches in Marion Township, it has been designated a historic site because of its well-preserved nineteenth-century architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Rose's Catholic Church (St. Rose, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

St. Rose's Catholic Church is a historic Catholic church in St. Rose, an unincorporated community in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (Celina, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Celina, Ohio, United States. Founded later than many other Catholic parishes in the heavily Catholic region of western Ohio, it owns a complex of buildings constructed in the early 20th century that have been designated historic sites because of their architecture. Leading among them is its massive church, built in the Romanesque Revival style just 43 years after the first Catholic moved into the city: it has been called northwestern Ohio's grandest church building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sisters of the Precious Blood (Switzerland)</span>

The Sisters of the Precious Blood is a Roman Catholic female religious order founded in Grisons, Switzerland, in 1834 by Mother Maria Anna Brunner. Precious Blood Sisters form an active apostolic congregation with sisters currently serving in the United States, Chile, and Guatemala. The congregation's mission statement reads: "Urged by the redeeming love of Jesus the Christ and rooted in Eucharistic prayer, we Sisters of the Precious Blood proclaim God's love by being a life-giving, reconciling presence in our fractured world." Members of the community are called to live out Precious Blood Spirituality regardless of their chosen ministry or daily work. Sisters have served in education, pastoral ministry, health care, social services, and various other fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Saints Catholic Church (New Riegel, Ohio)</span> Historic church in Ohio, United States

All Saints Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic faith community comprising various historical communities, including St. Boniface Catholic Church in New Riegel, St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Frenchtown, and Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Alvada, Ohio. The community was constituted in 2005 when Bishop Leonard Blair of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo consolidated these communities, leading to the closure of the churches in Frenchtown and Alvada. As a result of these closures, "All Saints" is now synonymous with what was previously known as St. Boniface Catholic Church and its associated rectory, convent, school and cemetery on North Perry Street in New Riegel, Ohio

Emlen Institution for the Benefit of Children of African and Indian Descent was an agricultural and industrial boarding school for African American and Native American Children in the United States. It was established in a bequest by Samuel Powers Emlen Jr., a prominent Quaker who lived in Burlington, New Jersey who died in 1837. Emlen left $20,000 for the "education, maintenance and instruction in school learning and in agriculture and mechanical trades or arts, of free male orphan children of African or Indian descent." It was established in Ohio with the acquisition of an existing manual labor school for African Americans in Carthagena, Ohio before relocating to Pennsylvania. It is unclear when it ceased operating. Several buildings from one of its locations in Pennsylvania are extant.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Samuel Powel Emlen Sr".
  3. "Emlen Institute | Solebury Township Historical Society". 7 August 2015.
  4. "Emlen Institution for the Benefit of Children of African and Indian Descent, 1765-1956". Everford College, Quaker & Special Collections. Haverford College. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  5. 1 2 "History of St. Charles Center". St. Charles, Carthagena, Ohio. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  6. Mary Ann Brown; Mary Niekamp (July 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form: Cross-Tipped Churches Thematic Resource" (PDF). National Park Service . Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  7. "Missionaries of the Precious Blood". St. Charles, Carthagena, Ohio. Retrieved 2 May 2015.