Historical May 1979 report or notice. Original dates, prices, programs and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
St. Roch’s Church, built between 1911 and 1921 in an “American-Tudor-Gothic” style, was designed by the firm Rush and Lee, and cost $95,000. (The Lees were also architects for the old school building and the rectory, both built earlier.) The exterior is constructed of rose colored brick with marble details. The oxidized copper on the steeple (which houses the neighborhood clock and chimes) provides the third color element in a rather lively exterior design. Inside the newly redecorated church, the high clerestory and chancel windows of intensely colored (predominately blue) glass combine perpendicularstyle framework, medieval iconography, and nineteenth-century glass design.
The chancel is entirely marble, as are the side-chapels. The fine reredos, in dove gray and white marble with mosaic accents of gold tesserai, leads the eye to the brilliant stained glass above. One of the most successful “modernizations” of the chancel in the city was accomplished a few years ago when the marble high altar, formerly affixed to the wall, was moved foreward. None of the usual crowding, choppiness or cluttered effect one associates with this kind of alteration is visible here. Slender ionic columns contribute to the overall effect of ethereal light and airiness, which effect has been greatly enhanced by the redecoration in (probably original) colors of marble white and dove gray, repeating the colors of marble used in the chancel and side-chapels.
Original photograph caption
St. Roch’s Church, labeled 6052 Waterman in the tour profile. Photo by King Schoenfeld. The Paper, May 1979, page 5.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1979.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1979_05.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
