St. Wenceslaus Church, Baltimore

The Church of St. Wenceslaus (Czech: Kostel sv. Václava) is a parish church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore located in the Middle East neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland.

St. Wenceslaus Church
St. Wenceslaus Church, 2014.
St. Wenceslaus Church
Location2111 Ashland Ave., Baltimore
CountryUnited States
DenominationRoman Catholic
WebsiteSt. Wenceslaus Catholic Church
History
FoundedNovember 1872 (1872-11)
Founder(s)Bohemian immigrants
DedicationSt. Wenceslaus
Dedicated ()
Consecrated ()
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Heritage designationFor Bohemian immigrants
Architectural typeChurch
StyleItalianate
Groundbreaking1914 (1914)
Completed1914 (1914)
Specifications
MaterialsGranite

History

St. Wenceslaus was founded in 1872 in a neighborhood of East Baltimore that was then known as Little Bohemia. The parish was created primarily to serve the Bohemian (Czech) community in Baltimore.[1][2] As suggested by parish records, a significant number of early attendees came from the area south of Nepomuk, especially Pačejov and Myslív.[3] Church services were originally held in both the English and Czech languages.[4] The present church was built in 1914, and at that time the church had 7,000 Bohemian Catholic members. By 1920 the church was the fourth largest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In recent years, the ethnic character of St. Wenceslaus parish has undergone a gradual change from a majority Czech parish to one that is multicultural and multiracial, first as many Poles and Lithuanians moved into the neighborhood, and then as the neighborhood shifted to having an African American majority.

St. Wenceslaus was founded and staffed by priests and lay brothers of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the Redemptorists, until 1999. Since then, it has been administered by friars of the Franciscan Third Order Regular.

Architecture

The building's overall design is in the Italianate style.

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See also
  • History of the Czechs in Baltimore
  • Roman Catholicism in the Czech Republic

References
  1. John Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County (1881) p 543
  2. "History". St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  3. "St. Wenceslaus Church CollectionMSA SC 2569M 1675A Publication of the Archives of Maryland Online Index". msa.maryland.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  4. Tim Almaguer, Friends of Patterson Park Baltimore's Patterson Park (2006) p 81
St. Wenceslaus Lyceum, June 2014.
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