St. Stanislaus Parish

While Historic Mitchell Street is now the mainartery running through a densely populated, largely Hispanic area of Milwaukee's near-SouthSide, St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, on the corner of Fifth Street, is a landmark from a timewhen the neighborhood was a thriving “Polonia” (Polish-American community). 100 Years: St. Stanislaus Centenary,1866-1966 tells the story of a homesick cobbler from Poznan named AnthonyKochanek, who, longing for the familiarity of a Sunday Mass with a Polishsermon, attended a meeting with a handful of his countrymen. Having justarrived in Milwaukee from Gdansk,Pomorze and Poznan,these men and women sought a way to establish a church for families of Polishdescent. Money was their biggest obstacle.

The vast majority ofPoles who immigrated to our city were impoverished peasants who had spent theirsmall life savings on passage to America. According to St.Stanislaus legend, Kochanek pulled from his pocket his most valuablepossession: a gold pocket watch. He offered it for raffle, and the $250 raisedbecame the sum and substance of the new parish treasury. In 1866 the parish’soriginal 30 families raised $4,000 to purchase a small hand-me-down brick churchfrom the Lutherans at Fifth and Mineral streets in Walker’s Point. They dedicated it to St.Stanislaus, bishop and martyr, and it became the first Catholic church forMilwaukee Poles and the first large parish for Americans of Polish ancestry inthe United States.

Along with Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, Milwaukee was on its way to becoming one of the largestcenters of Polish settlement in America.Clearly outgrowing the tiny church, the St. Stanislaus congregation purchasedland on Mitchell Streetand commissioned Leonard Kowalski, an architect from Warsaw, to design a new church. In July 1872,the first bishop of the new Diocese of Milwaukee, Archbishop John Henni,blessed the cornerstone of the present St. Stanislaus Church. Within 10 yearsof its move to the new church, St. Stanislaus Parish boasted nearly a thousandfamilies. In 1882, St. Stanislaus married 96 couples, and in 1883 alone itrecorded an impressive 602 baptismsan average of nearly a dozen every week.Anchored by “St. Stan’s,” Mitchell Street bloomed as a commercial district dubbed the“Polish Grand Avenue.”

Beginning in the springof 1960, St. Stanislaus was restored and modernized to celebrate its centennialin 1966. The general structure of the church was excellent, evidence of thesound and careful workmanship of the men who built it. Old and rotten wood wasreplaced with stone, all mortar between the bricks was ground out, and theentire exterior of the church and towers was tuck-pointed. A new tile roof,copper flashings and gutters were installed. The original 200-foot tall twintowerseach with eight columns, a dome and a 10-foot crosswere removed. Atground level they were constructed of heavy steel covered with quarter-inchwelded aluminum, then covered with 23-carat gold leaf. On Sept. 12, 1962, anenormous crane equipped with a special 200-foot boom lifted the stunning goldentowers atop St. Stanislaus, where they continue to stand as one of Milwaukee’s most familiarlandmarks.