Saint Urban, Washington

Saint Urban is an unincorporated community in Lewis County, Washington, United States.[1] It is located approximately three miles NE of Winlock 46°31′05″N 122°53′13″W / 46.518°N 122.887°W (map). It came about as German and Swiss immigrants settled here in the late 1800s. At the height of its prosperity the hub of this community, located at the intersection of Military Road and the Sargent Road, consisted of a small store, the Catholic church, a school and a Grange hall.[2][3] Today only the Grange Hall and church remain. The church has been decommissioned but a cemetery is still maintained.[4]

On August 15, 1891, the Assumption Catholic Church (later called St. Urban) was dedicated. It is located on the corner of Sargent Rd and Military Rd between Winlock and Napavine. A cemetery was also created behind the church.

the church, founded in 1884 by Swiss and German settlers, was in bad shape. Its sinking foundation caused its front to droop, and its bell tower was twisting away from the main building.

Bremgartner, whose great-great grandparents were among community's earliest settlers, helped form a group known as the St. Urban Settlement Foundation to restore and preserve the church, which had been listed by state officials as one of Washington's 10 most endangered historic sites.

On Sunday, the group and community members will celebrate the end of a six-year effort to restore the church with a ceremony that includes the ringing of the church's refurbished bell. The ceremony comes exactly 119 years after the church first was dedicated August 15, 1891. (St. Urban's wasn't officially dedicated by the Catholic Church until seven years after it was built because settlers couldn't get a priest to travel there by horseback, Bremgartner said.)

The Archdiocese of Seattle has agreed to lease the property for 50 years to Lewis County, which will rent the church for weddings and leave it open to tourists who can peruse artifacts and old photos, Bremgartner said.

Bremgartner's Settlement foundation, which includes a board of nine people and countless volunteers, raised about $200,000 to restore the church. They hired a contractor to lift the building - a delicate task considering its age.

"There was no guarantee that it was coming back down in one piece," he said.

A contractor poured a new concrete foundation beneath the church. Volunteers replaced rotting timbers, patched plaster, painted walls, installed carpet, re-stained floors and installed new windows. A Boy Scout refurbished the 1920s pews for his Eagle Scout project.

It was a Herculean effort, said Bremgartner, who is the principal of an Olympia elementary school. But, he said, the first time a historical architect hired by the foundation walked through the church, "she turned to me and said, ‘It's not if it can be fixed, it's how you're going to save it. You cannot let this go.'"

The church, at the corner of North Military and Sargent Roads, was part of a community of pioneers who settled in the area in the mid-1800s, Bremgartner said. St. Urban's was part of a string of Cowlitz Mission churches, which also included parishes in Vader and Napavine.

The settlement also included a church school, general store and dance hall. The church, as well as a cemetery where most of the early pioneer families are buried, is all that remains.

"It was a very important part of that pioneer community," Bremgartner said. "You're talking about a pioneer settlement that was in place prior to Washington becoming a state."

Bremgartner said it's hard to say when exactly Masses at the parish stopped, but it's been at least several decades. The occasional funeral continued to be held there into the 1980s, he said.

Lewis County Facilities Manager Doug Carey said the church will be managed and maintained by the parks department. Another historic church, the Claquato Church, which was founded around 1850, is also managed by the parks department and draws "quite a few" tourists, Carey said.

Of St. Urban's, he said, "It is kind of neat to be able to keep these things up so people don't lose their history."

[5]== References ==

  1. ↑ "Saint Urban". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. ↑ Bill Wall. "History of Winlock and Vicinity".
  3. ↑ C. C. Wall (1952). "A History of Winlock, Washington".
  4. ↑ "St. Urban Cemetery".
  5. ↑ http://tdn.com/news/local/winlock-celebrates-completion-of-st-urban-restoration/article_edf281e6-a760-11df-8d0d-001cc4c002e0.html

http://tdn.com/news/local/winlock-celebrates-completion-of-st-urban-restoration/article_edf281e6-a760-11df-8d0d-001cc4c002e0.html