This building, 215 N. 10th St., was built in 1854 as the first St. Boniface Church. A second story was added in 1866 for use as St. Boniface School. Enrollment reached 200 before a boys school was built in 1883. The schoolhouse was used by the girls until 1908. (Photo courtesy St. Boniface School)
Over the past century, the St. Boniface School building has been used as a warehouse, tavern, plumbing shop and storefront. Virtuous Cycles is the latest occupant. (by Kevin Cullen/for the Journal & Courier)
Scores of great old buildings line the streets of downtown Lafayette. Many drip with corbels, cornices, gingerbread trim, turnings, turrets, balconies and other Victorian embellishments.
But few are as historic as the simple brick structure at 215 N. 10th St. No plaque reveals its story.
Over the past century, the building has been used as a warehouse, a tavern, a plumbing shop, a garage and a storefront.
But when it was built in 1854 for $7,000, it housed the first St. Boniface Church, home to Lafayette's German-Catholic population.
German immigration ballooned in the late 1840s and early 1850s. In 1853, local German Catholics decided to leave English-speaking Sts. Mary and Martha Church. They started their own parish to preserve their language and customs.
After 11 years on 10th Street, the so-called "German Parish" moved to the present St. Boniface Church at Ninth and North streets. That building, able to seat 800, cost $28,762 -- excluding the stained-glass windows, altar furniture and steeple, all of which were added later.
But the thrifty congregation didn't abandon the earlier building. Instead, it spent $4,300 to add a second story in 1866. St. Bonifacius Schule (St. Boniface School) was housed there until 1908.
If those honest old walls could talk, they could speak of Masses in Latin, of sermons in German and of the hundreds of school children who learned within for 42 years.
The first St. Boniface School opened in 1855, in a cottage at 10th and Ferry streets. Starting in 1866, classes were taught in the brick schoolhouse by Ursuline nuns from Louisville, Ky. Problems arose during the 1876-77 school year because two of the sisters assigned were not fluent in German.
The distressed trustees asked the Ursulines' mother superior for German-speaking teachers. She couldn't promise that, and she added that the pay provided was inadequate for women forced to sometimes travel to Louisville. So the pastor, Father Accursius Beine, brought in three Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration from Germany.
Sister Bonaventura, Sister Rosa and Sister Josepha took charge on Sept. 3, 1877. St. Boniface was their community's first school in the United States; Franciscan sisters have served St. Boniface School ever since.
Boys and girls, grades one through eight, attended classes on 10th Street until 1883. Tuition was 50 cents per month, but waivers were granted for students who agreed to carry coal, clean and feed the stoves.
Thanks in part to anti-Catholic sentiment, enrollment grew to 200. Classrooms were so cramped that the only furniture consisted of long wooden benches.
In 1883, a new St. Boniface School for boys was built on Ninth Street, next to the church -- a building now used as a rectory and parish office. The girls remained in the old building until the present St. Boniface School was completed in 1908, at a cost of $27,000.
The former schoolhouse on 10th Street was sold, then expanded to serve commercial uses.
Other downtown landmarks are bigger, taller, grander ... but few can match its story.
Cullen scouts the area to find unique people, places, and events to write about. He can be reached at email@example.com.