ST. ANTHONY (1888)

Founded in 1873, Sterling did not begin to grow until the Union Pacific arrived in 1887. Among other people and things, the railroad brought William J. Howlett to town. This pioneer missionary to northeastern Colorado reported in his Recollections that railroad workers flocked to the Masses he held in a trackside tent: "From the graders on the road I collected enough money to buy a block of ground in Sterling, and in 1888 I built a frame church, which was dedicated by Bishop Matz, June 24, 1888, the feast of its patron, St. John the Baptist."

St. John's, Howlett added, was "hit three times by hurricanes and demolished the third time." Rather than rebuild this $1,000, 200-seat chapel after the August 1896 disaster, Father Howlett's successors said Mass in the Logan County Courthouse. On their Sunday visits from St. Augustine's in Brighton, priests stayed with the families of Patrick Fleming or Anthony Giacomini.

Giacomini and Bernard Froegel, the missionary pastor, purchased the former Church of Christ at the corner of Chestnut and North 5th streets in 1902 for $600. Father Froegel fixed up the old brick church and frame parsonage next door. From Sterling, the Logan County seat, he also ministered to St. Peter's in Crook, St. Catherine's in Iliff, Sacred Heart in Peetz, and St. John's in Stoneham.

Meanwhile, the 1905 construction of the Great Western Sugar Company refinery sweetened life in Sterling, where the population swelled from 998 in 1900 to 3,044 in 1910. Catholics petitioned Bishop Matz to send them a resident priest, and in 1908, he answered their prayers by creating an independent parish and sending Peter U. Sasse, a native of Alsace-Lorraine. Although Father Sasse added on to the church, it remained inadequate.

Anthony Giacomini's son William, the town postmaster, worked with Father Sasse to purchase a site for a new church. This Romanesque structure used the traditional cruciform floorplan and contained three altars, with the main altar front enhanced by a bas relief replica of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, "The Last Supper." Frescoed walls sparkled in colorful shades cast by the imported stained glass windows. Over 500 people, half of them non-Catholics, gathered for the dedication by Bishop Matz on November 5, 1911, according to next day's Sterling Evening Advocate. Rather than use the old name--St. John's--the new church was named St. Anthony's in honor of Anthony Giacomini, the head of the pioneer Catholic clan who had for so long sustained the parish.

The German Congregational Zion Church bought old St. John's for $2,000, enabling Father Sasse to build a large two-story rectory north of the church in 1913. St. Anthony's, in 1917, purchased three adjacent houses to open a school. One was converted to a convent for nine Franciscan sisters from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who opened a grade school in the former Frank H. Blair residence in the fall of 1918. The school soon swarmed with 400 students, inspiring the Sisters of St. Francis to start a high school in the house next door in 1922.

Following Father Sasse's transfer to Montrose in 1920, Charles H. Hagus took charge in Sterling. Father Hagus constructed a two-and-a-half-story, pressed red brick high school for $22,000 in 1934. A year earlier, both the parish and Father Hagus had celebrated silver jubilees, for which parishioners built Our Lady of Lourdes grotto.

St. Anthony's third pastor, Emile J. Verschraeghen, guided the parish from 1934 until his death in November 1962. Father Emile, who was fluent in English, French, German, and Italian, taught languages and religion in the high school. He delighted his many German-speaking parishioners by conducting a German school and preaching in German occasionally. Reflecting Father Verschraeghen's commitment to education, St. Anthony's replaced the two schoolhouses with a new brick grade school, gymnasium, and cafeteria, completed in 1951. This $200,000 expansion complemented the handsome high school and church. Although St. Anthony High School closed in 1970, the parish still offers preschool through sixth-grade education.

St. Anthony's rich history and elegant, well-preserved architecture led to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Eisenstraut, with the Black Hills Architects of Deadwood, South Dakota, planned this $45,000 Romanesque revival gem, according to the Sterling Advocate of Febrary 17, 1913. Its reddish-orange pressed brick exterior is enhanced by cream-colored stone trim and foundations. The stocky, low façaade is crowned by ornate gables with splendid corbelling and two mismatched crenelated towers.

Among the human landmarks of the parish is Sister Margaret Kohnen, OSF, who first came to teach at St. Anthony's in 1940 and was honored in 1976 as the Catholic Educator of the Year. St. Anthony's, which now occupies almost an entire block of downtown Sterling, provides some 800 families with spiritual, social, and scholastic opportunities.