St. Stanislaus Catholic Church

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St. Stanislaus Catholic Church is located in the historic Mitchell Street District of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is a designated Milwaukee Landmark. Founded in 1866 by immigrant Poles of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, its parish was the third Roman Catholic Polish church in the United States and the first based in an urban area.

Members started with an old frame building which was purchased in 1866 from nearby St. Stephen Lutheran Church for a sum of $4,500. The twin towered building seen today was completed in 1873 with a parochial school to follow in 1889.

1 Dedication
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Dedication

See Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Polish martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

[edit] History

A shift of economy in the 1880s from commerce to industry brought about a rapid influx of Eastern European Catholics to the region. St. Stanislaus and the surrounding neighborhood quickly grew to become the center of Polish life in Milwaukee. Mitchell Street was often referred to as the "Polish Grand Avenue," reflecting its importance and distinction from the German dominated Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue), a popular downtown merchant street.

On May 1, 1886 about 2,000 Polish workers gathered at St. Stanislaus to organize and protest the 10 hour work day. Factories closed down as they marched through the city adding to their numbers, until sixteen thousand strong. The Bay View Tragedy later followed when State Militia confronted protesters who had camped out at the Rolling mill in Bay View.

The church started a number of other Polish-speaking congregations in the East Side and Jones Island neighborhoods. By 1903, Milwaukee held the largest number of Catholics found in any city, and helped to establish a presence in other growing industrial towns that were part of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

In 1926 the school was expanded and given a new facade. The original copper sheet domes were replaced with 23 carat gold leaf in 1966, and all of the stained glass windows were removed. A mural featuring the iconic Our Lady of Czestochowa was also added to the Mitchell Street side.

As the city's Polish-American population slowly followed the urban sprawl that began in the 1950s they were replaced by other ethnic groups. St. Stanislaus continues to serve the local community, now mostly Hispanic, by offering bilingual confession and Sunday services in Spanish.