Back to top

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul

Creator: 
  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
Church of St. Columba, St. Paul

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul. Photograph by Paul Nelson, June 30, 2017.

The Church of St. Columba in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood is the only Minnesota work by the Chicago architect Francis Barry Byrne. Architectural historian and critic Larry Millett calls it “a high point of modern church architecture in the Twin Cities.”

The Hamline-Midway neighborhood is a modest one of mostly single-story houses built in the early twentieth century. But just off the corner of Hamline and Lafond Avenues rises something unique and out of character: a bright combination of massive blocks and graceful curves. A Roman Catholic Church with no steeple, built in the style called Modernist, it is unlike any other building in the Twin Cities.

Archbishop John Ireland created St. Columba parish in 1914. For founding pastor he chose Michael J. Casey, whom he had met in Kilkenny, Ireland. Casey graduated from the St. Paul Seminary in 1906 and was serving a tiny parish in Big Stone County when Ireland called on him to come back to St. Paul.

The Midway congregation first met in a storefront at the corner of Hamline Avenue and Thomas Avenue. Its first permanent church went up in 1915; it featured squat twin towers in a supposed “Norman-Gothic” style. The congregation grew quickly. It opened a school on Hamline Avenue, next to the church, in 1922, and expanded it to a capacity of 1000 students in 1931.

In 1945 Father Casey decided a new, bigger parish church was needed, and challenged his congregation to raise the money. When, rather soon, $300,000 had been gathered, the Chicago church architect Francis Barry Byrne (1883–1967) was hired. St. Columba sources say Casey chose Byrne, whom he had known for fifteen years; Byrne’s biographer says it was St. Paul’s archbishop, John Gregory Murray, who insisted on Byrne.

Byrne was an uncommon figure. He never finished high school but talked his way into a clerical role on Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural team at age eighteen. There he served as chief draftsman and construction supervisor of the famed Unity Temple in Oak Park. At age twenty-four he went into business for himself, and after years of wandering and struggle settled on church architecture as his specialty. He was devoutly Roman Catholic.

As he developed his own style, Byrne insisted on an American architecture free of classical European influence. Though he disliked the term modernist, his designs fit some of its characteristics—“form over function” and little ornamentation. “The function of a church,” wrote Byrne, “is worship, and a church in the new style that adequately and soberly expresses this great function of worship cannot be other than an enduring piece of architecture.” He designed Catholic churches in Racine, Chicago, Milwaukee, Tulsa, Pierre, Kansas City, and, his favorite, in Cork, Ireland. Byrne also published more than forty magazine articles, and nearly a hundred columns and book reviews on architecture, painting, and painters.

St. Columba presented Byrne with two unusual challenges. One was a small footprint; the other was Father Casey’s insistence that the church feature an “Irish tower,” a feature associated with St. Columba himself. Against his own desires, Byrne added the tower and, to accommodate a building that would seat 1000, placed it on the lot on a diagonal.

Construction began in 1948. To save money, Byrne designed the church with no basement; concrete was poured over a steel frame. The exterior walls are curved, so that the interior space resembles one of Byrne’s favorite motifs, the ancient Christian symbol of the fish. From Lafond Avenue, on the building’s south side, the first thing that catches the eye is the tall Irish tower. Inside, the sanctuary is open—no pillars—and filled with light that, according to Millett, “even on sunny days is mysterious and ethereal.” The building opened in 1950. In an essay for St. Columba, Barry Byrne wrote that the modern church “should be built to endure, to last into another and later age.” His St. Columba in the Midway has so far done that.

The congregation, by contrast, has changed with the city. In 1950 it was, ethnically, mostly English, French, Irish, and German, with a seasoning of Eastern European and Italian surnames. In 2017 the majority of its congregation was Vietnamese American.

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul, Minnesota. New Church Dedication Book: A Retrospect of Thirty-Six Years, 1914–1950. St. Paul: Church of St. Columba, [1950].

——— . St. Columba Church. St. Paul: Church of St. Columba, 1967.

——— . Church of St. Columba, 1914–2014. [St. Paul]: 2014.

Michael, Vincent L. The Architecture of Barry Byrne. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013.

Millett, Larry. AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2007.

Related Images

Church of St. Columba, St. Paul
Church of St. Columba, St. Paul
Interior of the original Church of St. Columba
Interior of the original Church of St. Columba
Rev. Michael J. Casey
Rev. Michael J. Casey
Archbishop John Gregory Murray
Archbishop John Gregory Murray
Exterior of the original Church of St. Columba
Exterior of the original Church of St. Columba
Cornerstone of the Church of St. Columba
Cornerstone of the Church of St. Columba
Front entrance to the Church of St. Columba
Front entrance to the Church of St. Columba
Curved western wall of the Church of St. Columba
Curved western wall of the Church of St. Columba
Interior of the Church of St. Columba
Interior of the Church of St. Columba
The altar inside the Church of St. Columba
The altar inside the Church of St. Columba
Floor decoration honoring Father Michael J. Casey
Floor decoration honoring Father Michael J. Casey
Plaque in memory of Father Michael J. Casey
Plaque in memory of Father Michael J. Casey

Turning Point

In 1945 Father Michael J. Casey challenges his congregation to raise the money to build a new, much bigger church.

Chronology

1882

Michael J. Casey is born on January 12 on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.

1906

On June 12, Casey, having been inspired to come to St. Paul by Archbishop John Ireland, graduates from the St. Paul Seminary and is ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

1914

On September 1, Ireland establishes St. Columba Parish in St. Paul’s (mostly Protestant) Hamline-Midway neighborhood and selects Casey to be its first priest. The first mass is held on September 27 in a store at the corner of Hamline and Thomas Avenues.

1915

The first permanent church for the St. Columba congregation, designed by James Donohue in a Norman-Gothic style, is dedicated on November 21.

1921

St. Columba School opens. It is designed by John Wheeler and costs $250,000 to build.

1931

An addition raises the school's capacity to 1000 students.

1945

In September Father Casey challenges his parish to raise the money to build a new, much larger church. $300,000 is soon raised and the congregation engages Chicago architect Francis Barry Byrne to design the new building.

1948

On September 12 the last mass is performed at the original Church of St. Columba. The new one will be built by McGough Construction for $600,000.

1949

The cornerstone is laid for the new building on February 19.

1950

The new church building opens.

2004

St. Columba School closes due to low enrollment.

2007

The archdiocese appoints a native of Vietnam, Father Hoang D. Nguyen, as parish priest.