Entry 7 : First School/ Church
The Right Reverend Monsignor Francis Xavier Specht was the Founder First Pastor of St. Mary Parish. Following his ordination as a priest on March 12, 1864, he was assigned as Assistant to the pastor of Holy Cross Church, Father J.B. Hemsteger. Father Specht was given the assignment of organizing a new parish, Saint Mary. Under his supervision, land was purchased and the first building, a four-room schoolhouse was built in 1865. Father Specht resided on the second floor of the schoolhouse (now the Specht Center) until the Church was completed in 1868.
Mass was celebrated in one of the two lower rooms of the schoolhouse while the other first floor room served as the classroom. One of the first students was Mary Birkenbach Eckstein, the grandmother of our long time Saint Mary church usher, Leo Thurn. In 1875, the Convent of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Mary Immaculate, of Joliet, Illinois, agreed to provide nuns to staff the school as the enrollment had reached over two hundred and fifty students. In 1887, because of growing enrollment, a five-room brick building was erected for grade school classes on Mohawk Street. In 1927, Saint Mary Elementary, with an enrollment of 546 students was the largest of the 22 Catholic grade schools in Franklin County, and the largest of 79 Catholic grade schools in the 20 county Diocese of Columbus. It was not until 1956 that the current building was built. The original building, the Specht Center, still stands, to the rear of the church. The four rooms of the Specht Center have been returned to their original function as classrooms. Even the recess/church bell has been restored, though if may or may not call the students to and from recess, Since the bell is electrically controlled there will probably be no fights over who will ring it and no Casey boys slipping and punching a hole in the ceiling.
Spiritual Vessel Pray for us. Pray for vocations.
