ST. ROSE OF LIMA (1924)

In 1923, the old Valverde Presbyterian Church became Denver's newest Catholic church. J.J. Gibbons, pastor of nearby Presentation Church, worked with fifteen families to launch the new parish in the secondhand church at 1310 West Nevada Place.

Bishop Tihen dedicated the little frame building to St. Rose of Lima on October 15, 1924. The first pastor was a young priest who also edited the Denver Catholic Register, Matthew J. Smith. A month later, Father Smith left the parish to devote full time to the Register, which he transformed into a prominent national newspaper.

John R. Mulroy, the next priest, moved into a rectory built for him and his mother, who kept house. Father Mulroy, who later became Monsignor Mulroy, was the founding director of Catholic Charities, which he developed into one of the major enterprises of the Church in Colorado.

Louis J. Grohman became the third pastor in 1930 and worked with volunteers to add a hall that doubled the size of the church. Three years later, the growing parish further remodeled and enlarged its home. To service the debt, St. Rose's staged bazaars with exotic themes, such as "A Night in Paris" and "A Night in Shanghai."

Following Father Grohman's resignation in 1949, Barry J. Wogan began a pastorate that lasted until his 1976 retirement. All the former pastors and Archbishop Vehr gathered on April 4, 1952, to dedicate a new basement church on West Dakota Avenue between Navajo and Pecos streets. Father Grohman delighted parishioners with his poem written for "the Rosebud fair that gave our Church its name."

Father Wogan oversaw the 1955 construction of a four-classroom school; the second floor of the structure was used as a church. This $172,000 project included a ten-bedroom convent at 375 South Navajo Street for the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. The original church was made into a parish hall.

By 1963, the parish had grown to about 900 families (over 3,500 persons), and Archbishop Vehr approved plans for a new 600-seat church on West Nevada Place. This $196,000 structure featured brick walls, exterior and interior, with the interior enhanced by laminated wood arches and a free standing altar canopy decorated with a white enameled dove. "Flood Turns New Church Into Rubble," ran the headline in The Denver Post of June 20, 1965. After the June 16 flood caused $150,000 damage to St. Rose's parish plant, 150 parishioners spent the next Sunday cleaning out the water, mud, and debris to salvage what was left of the church, school, convent, and rectory, still under construction. With the help of $55,000 from the Archdiocesan Development Program, the parish rebuilt.

Upon Father Wogan's retirement in 1976, Bishop George R. Evans became pastor, reinstating the parish bazaar and helping develop a new sense of social activism. Bishop Evans remained in residence at St. Rose of Lima until the end of his life. He was followed as pastor by John F. Dold (1979-1983), John J. Loughran (1983-1988), and the current pastor, Lawrence B. Kaiser, a Denver native trained at St. Thomas Seminary.