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St. John Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church
St. John Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church - The original St. John's Nepomucene Church was built in 1892 at Ridge and Luzerne Streets. Later in 1915 a new church was built on Vine Street at South Street, as commemorated on the cornerstone. The photo below left appeared in the Kalendar Jednota 1906. Its caption translates to: "Slovak Church and Rev. Karol Pajdusak, pastor in Freeland, Pa."Also from the same Kalendar Jednota 1906, here is a view of the interior of the old church.
Just down the street on the same block of Ridge St. was St. Casimir's Church; both churches can be seen in the photo below left. The lower left part of that image can be seen enlarged below right, showing what the neighborhood looked like in the early years of the parishes, possibly 1890s.
In 1915 a beautiful new stone church was built by Italian stonemason Joe Ranieri and his crew. They were the same stonemasons who built St. Luke's stone church, replacing the original wooden building. They also built the building that became the Corner Market on Ridge and Main, and Joe and his wife had a store there for awhile. There is more information about them and about Joe's crew on his webpage, use the link in this paragraph.
The two photos at left below came to me from Betty Piccione, and I'm grateful for these early views of the new church. As you see from the left photo, the streets in that area of town were unpaved and there were few other buildings around it, especially southward. The stone work was masterful and beautifully done. What an elegant new home for the Slovak Catholic congregation.
This
photo came from Al Stoffa, whose family ran Stoffa's swimming pool
years ago; it closed in 1969 when Al's grandfather died. Al wrote: Attached is a link to a family photo. I
believe it was taken about 1940 for the 50th anniversary of St. John
Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church in Freeland. My grandparents, Joseph
STOFFA and Anna GREGA STOFFA are in the photo. I'm not sure if you
would like to use this on the Freeland history site that you maintain.
My grandfather lived in Foster Township, on Cedar St. The other side of
the street was in the borough.Looking at these wonderful costumes, it looks like these people were enacting some skits or a play relating to life in the old country, celebrating their Slovak roots. I wish we had the names of all of these parishioners! This photo seems like it was taken in front of the old church, which was used for many years as a parish center once the new church was built in 1915.
This photo of St.
John's Slovak Band first came to me from Pat Boren, who wrote: My mom grew up there in the 30s and 40s.
Her father was Mike Herkalo, who was a butcher with a grocery store in
the front of their home at 904 Centre Street. Mike was born in Freeland
in 1884, first generation born here (his parents were from Kucin,
Slovakia and they spelled the name Hirkala). ... In the band photo,
Mike
is holding his white hat and tuba, 2nd row back, on the right. I
believe his brother is behind him to the right on the end, horn
visible. Guessing the time frame is 1910-ish? Mike Herkalo was born
1888 -- so that music photo, I'd guess he's a teenager? And finally, here are some views of the Vine Street church from several angles. I like the view of the back of the building because it emphasizes how complex the design and the stonework were. This was 1915! They quarried all of the stone for this and several other buildings from a quarry not far to the west of the church, out behind Green Street somewhere. The bottom right photo shows the rectory.
