adventureswithapostcardSaint Andrews Catholic Church – Roanoke, VA
Sitting in the middle of the mountains, Roanoke, Virginia is a city rich in history. The downtown streets are packed full of historical buildings, but on the “outskirts” of the downtown hub sits St. Andrews Catholic Church. This church has been in existence for over 100 years and, when compared with the postcard, hasn’t changed much.
History [in 200 words or less]
The year was 1879. The town “Big Lick” (later renamed “Roanoke” in 1881) was assigned a newly ordained priest, John W. Lynch, when the church decided to venture out into the local mountain towns and bring the Catholic population together. John’s goal was to connect the scattered Catholics and, after several years, he held the first mass in 1882. A year later, in 1883, a plot of land was purchased and a small brick church was constructed. Over the next 10 years, the parish thrived; a Sunday school was built, a home for boys was established, a meeting hall was added on, and, eventually, a new church building was commissioned to be built in 1897. The church you can see today (and in the postcard) is the product of that commission and was completed in 1902.
The church remains in operation to this day, holding worship services multiple times a week and is open to visitors.
Sadly, this specific postcard has no inscription on the back. So we can only imagine what the buyer had to say about their experience visiting Roanoke, Virginia, and why it was left unwritten and undelivered. If it was me, I’m sure it would say something about having a “swell time in the mountain town” and “spending time exploring the parks and seeing lovely buildings”. But, alas, I wasn’t born 60+ years ago to purchase and write on this postcard. So we shall never know.
HOWEVER.
Roanoke is full of history, lovely buildings, and gorgeous parks, so I’m sure you’ll have a “swell time” if you ever passed through and visited. While you’re at it, swing by St. Andrews Catholic Church either to attend a service or, if that’s not your cup of tea, gawk at the architecture and the gorgeous stained glass windows decorating the building.
If you’re in the neighborhood, i’s hard to miss this historical yellow church on the hill, so why try?
Source of information came from the Parish History page of St. Andrews Church ( HERE ) and the History of Roanoke page on Roanoke’s tourism site ( HERE ).
