FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: EVIDENCE OF OUR HISTORY

Though built for multi purposes, the original parish building is now used entirely for the school and hall.  But there is evidence of former uses.  The office located on the top floor of the bell tower was once the office of the sister principal.  A hole in the ceiling is where the rope for the bell in the tower once hung.  There is a window that is now plastered over in the hall but the evidence of which is still seen in this office by way of a sliding door that sister once used to keep an eye on her students during Mass.

In the basement under a set of stairs is an abandoned vault.  Here was kept the parish valuables when this building also housed the church, hall, and offices.  In the library is still seen an elevated area that served as the stage from when this floor was the church hall.  

On the second floor is a large classroom that housed the nuns.  The girls bathroom is larger and slightly more ornate than any others in the building.  This served as the communal bathroom for the religious faculty who lived there.  

On the front lawn of the school is the original parish bell.  Typically, Catholic steeple bells are given a name and are “baptized” before use.  In the Roman Catholic Church the name Baptism of Bells has been given to the ceremonial blessing of church bells since the eleventh century. The name given this bell is Annunciata.  It was caste by the Stuckstede & Bro. Co. and dedicated in November of 1929.  According to online sources this foundry operated in Saint Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1940, and intermittently thereafter until 1961.  At least 90 bells from this foundry (mostly single but some in peals of two or three) remain in the Saint Louis region.  This was the second largest and second longest-lasting of several bell foundries in this city.  At some point. during repairs to the tower, the bell was removed and placed on the school grounds, but is still very much in working order.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: 1956 - GROWING PAINS

The parish boundaries of St. Sebastian at this time still extended out through Copley.  Once not much more than dirt roads and farmland, the area was now becoming developed and there were people who needed a parish to serve them better.  On September 10th, Fr. John Kroll, Vicar General of the Diocese, traveled to St. Sebastian to explore the possible future development of parishes “on Hawkins and in Copley and Fairlawn.”  According to a letter dated the 17th of that month, Father Zwisler stated that there were over 800 students in the school and it was only after some prodding that he finally admitted that perhaps there were at least that many again attending public schools because St. Sebastian was full and at a distance from many of the students.

“The fact of the matter is,” Fr. Kroll wrote, “that his parish covers a territory of about sixty square miles.  In that area are three golf courses and also a deep gorge of the Metropolitan Park District . . . He agrees that his parish should be divided to the west because of the recent housing development and because of the traveling distance - Copley to the west and to the northwest, the Fairlawn District.”

A couple of sites were suggested.  Property was already acquired on South Hawkins and would take the southern part of the current parish boundaries.  Another was in Copley.  “Father Zwisler concurs that a location at the intersection of Rt. 162 near the present Rt. 21 would serve the present concentration of people around the center of Copley better than the present site . . . Moreover, the new Rt. 21 Freeway is now being constructed to the west of the site . . . There is a great deal of construction activity in and through Copley Township.  This seems to be a natural overflow from Akron.”

There is then a description of their efforts to find out if there would be any water or sewer service  in the area within the next ten years.  Lots were being sold at this point without water and homeowners would have to drill wells. 

The letter continues describing a discussion with a local realtor.  “He was asked whether he was aware of any present site, about 15 acres, available around Copley Center.  He agreed to inquire, particularly since he said that while he sold 49 lots in about a week, there were many people who inquired whether there was any Catholic Church in the neighborhood, and many of them complained that the distance to St. Sebastian was too far.  He was surprised to learn that my companion was the pastor of St. Sebastian.  He agreed to make some inquiries and to report to Father Zwisler by the 26th.”

Eyes were also set on Fairlawn.  “There is no question about it.  The Fairlawn District is well developed and there is room for more development.  The property which Father Zwisler indicated is not the most desirable one because it is too great a distance from his parish.  It would be better located at the main road of Rt. 18.”

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: THE WING OF 1956

According to county records, the junior high wing of the school was added this year.  The growing population of students was becoming too much for the original building and so a wing of classrooms was added.  The addition of five classrooms relieved much of the pressure of the growing student body.  It was also constructed in such way as to make it easily expandable if  ever needed.  The classrooms are all on one side of a long hallway making it possible to double its classroom capacity by adding more classrooms on the opposite side where now stands the greenhouse.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: BURSTING AT THE SEEMS

With the post war baby boom, the number of children in the school exploded.  Originally built to handle about 250 students, the retrofitted school now boasted an enrollment of 650.  It was time to utilize the property across Hawkins Avenue.  Ground for a recreation building that would include additional classroom space was broken in 1952.  Work continued through the Jubilee Year of the parish.

A grand party was planned for that Jubilee Year.  It would take place in the new recreation center at 3PM on Sunday, November 8th, 1953.  Archbishop Hoban would be in attendance and officiate the blessing of the new building.

The program began with selections from the choir.  Emitte Spiritum Tuum by Schuetky, the Sanctus from Gounod’s Mass of St. Cecelia, and the Recessional Jubilate Deo by Mozart.  Representatives from the parish spoke as well as the mayor of Akron, the Honorable Russell M. Bird.  There were also presentations and solos.  The day ended with solemn benediction in the church.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: PARISH HISTORY: SOME DREAMS TAKE LONGER THAN OTHERS

The 1950’s began the next major phase in the life of the parish.  For one, the population in West Akron was growing considerably.  The number of students in the school was beginning to demand more space.  This year would see the foundation of the convent laid.  It would eventually house more nuns than their temporary quarters in the school, space that was needed since more students would require more teachers.  Their living space on the top floor of the school would now be turned into additional classroom space allowing the school to expand without having to build.

It must have been about this time that the dream of having a parochial high school had faded, though the parish still owned property on the other side of South Hawkins Avenue.  At one time the whole area west of Hawkins Avenue at the Mull intersection was envisioned by the city as a cultural center.  Already located not too far from this location was Good Park Golf Course.  Known as being among the finest municipal golf courses in the United States, the 18-hole J. Edward Good Course, designed by Bertie Way, opened in 1926, two years before the parish was founded.

The vision for the rest of the area was much different from what we see today.  The plan shows gridded streets much like the rest of West Akron. Behind Byrider Hall was to be a broad parkway.  All around the parish property was to be housing lots.  What is now Byrider Hall would have been on a city block virtually by itself.  Further, it was thought for a while that on the corner to the north, the Akron Board of Education would be built.  In the late twenties there was talk of moving the University of Akron, the art museum, and the library here.  This would make West Akron (then known as Maple Valley - which is why we still have Maple Valley Cleaners) an ideal spot for a Catholic high school.  Then the Great Depression brought all these grand plans to a screeching halt.  

By 1950 it was clear that none of this would take place.  A remnant of this one time dream can be found by taking a walk in the woods behind the former Perkins Middle School.  Hidden amongst the trees is a cement street sign marking the dreamed of intersection of Sunset View Blvd West and Good Park Avenue.  With those dreams permanently changed, new plans for use of the parish land was formulating.  It would not be until 75 years later and the closing of the public school that the possibility of creating these roads once again would be revisited.

UPDATES:

This series is focused on the history of the parish up to when the founding pastor, Msgr. Zwislwer, dies.  But there are two developments that have since taken place that seem interesting enough to put this stricture aside for the moment.

FIRST UPDATE:  Last week there was the story of the ordination of Fr. Dannemiller SS at St. Sebastian Parish.  As it turns out we still have Dannemillers in the area and thanks to some inquiries made by one of our industrious workers here we found out that Fr. Dannemiller eventually left the priesthood, got married, and was eventually a father Dannemiller of a different sort.

SECOND UPDATE:  As it ironically turns out, the land reported above which eventual became Perkins Middle School and a number of football and baseball fields is once again being re-envisioned into a developed neighborhood.  Once planned streets and housing lots are being proposed by the city to be begun sometime in the next year or two.  It won't be the cultural center once proposed but families will hopefully be moving into the dream houses thought of almost a century ago.