Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church (Solon, Iowa) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Saints Peter and Paul Chapel in rural Solon Iowa
Location in Iowa Show map of Iowa Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	1165 NE Taft Avenue Solon, Iowa
Area	2.5 acres (1.0 ha)
Built	1916-1917
Architect	R. K. Parkinson
Architectural style	Late 19th and 20th century Revivals
NRHP reference No.	97000622
Added to NRHP	March 12, 1999

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church is a historic church building. It used to be a local church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, which is a church region. The church is in the countryside near Solon, Iowa, in the United States. It sits on a gravel road east of Iowa Highway 1. This road is between Solon and Mount Vernon in Johnson County. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. This list includes places important to history.

History of the Church

Memorial to the old stone church located in the cemetery across the street.

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church started around 1861. It was built for Czech people from Bohemia who moved to the Solon area starting in 1854. This was the first Czech Catholic church group in Iowa. At first, they met in schoolhouses, sometimes with a priest and sometimes without one.

The first church building was made of stone. It was built by hand for $1,300. The stone came from a local quarry. This building was across the road from where the current church stands. Over time, the stone church started to fall apart. It was closed in 1916 and torn down in 1938. Today, a monument to this first church stands in the cemetery. It is located where the old church's altar used to be.

Work on the current church building began on April 18, 1916. It was officially opened on July 15, 1917. A priest named Rev. Florian Svrdlik from St. Wenceslaus Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, gave a speech at the opening. Building the church cost $13,800.

Like many churches in rural Iowa, this church saw fewer people attending. Also, there were fewer priests available. On March 28, 1996, Bishop William Franklin announced that Saints Peter and Paul's would close. It officially closed on June 30 of that year. The church group joined with St. Mary's Church in Solon. Rev. Joseph Sparks from St. Mary's took care of the church's business matters.

That same year, former members of the church decided to save the building. They bought the church from the diocese for just one dollar. They raised money to fix up the building. By 1998, the repairs were finished. Now, the building is used for weddings and other special events.

How the Church Looks (Architecture)

The south side of the church.

Saints Peter and Paul Church is a large building, about 79-by-35-foot (24 by 11 m). It has a steel frame covered with red bricks and tiles. The church has six sections, called "bays." The first section on the east side has the towers and the main entrance. After that, there are four sections that make up the main part of the church, called the "nave." These sections are separated by stepped supports called "buttresses." The sixth section on the west end holds the "chancel," which is the area around the altar. Two small rooms, called "sacristies," are on either side of the chancel.

The front of the church, called the "facade," has two towers that are not the same height. They stand on either side of the main entrance. Above the entrance, there is a message written in Czech: Sv. Petře a Pavle Orodujte zanas! This means "Saints Peter and Paul pray for us!" The two towers look the same until they reach the roofline, called the "cornice." At this point, the bell tower on the south side is taller than the north tower.

Brick decorations, called "corbels," are found in the triangular parts of the roof, called "gables." A round window is above the main entrance. Crosses are placed on the pointy tops of both towers, called "spires." There is also a cross on the peak of the main roof. The church is built on a raised basement. This basement used to be a hall for church events.

Inside, the main area (the nave) is one large space. The ceiling is shaped like a half-barrel, which is called a "barrel vaulted ceiling." Round arches are a common design inside the church. You can see them in the arch leading to the altar area (the "chancel arch"). They are also in the decorative arches where the side altars are. The screen behind the main altar, called the "reredos," also has these arches. You can also see them in the stained glass windows and the pictures showing the Stations of the Cross.

The altars are made of carved wood and painted to look like marble. Statues of St. Peter and St. Paul stand on either side of a cross in the reredos. A carved picture, called a "bas-relief," of the Last Supper is on the front of the main altar. One of the side altars has a statue of the Infant of Prague. The main altar used for Mass in later years came from the very first stone church.

The windows in the nave show pictures of saints. Some of these saints are important to Czech heritage, like St. Wenceslaus. Others are connected to farming, such as St. Barbara (who protects against lightning) and St. Swithun (who helps with droughts). In the entrance area of the church, called the "vestibule," there is a painting from the 1800s. It shows St. Peter and St. Paul and came from Europe. Above the vestibule, there is a balcony, called a "gallery," that extends 5 feet (2 m) into the main part of the church.