page_title: Saint Mary's Catholic Church (Dubuque, Iowa)
section_title: From 1922 to the present
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Mary's Catholic Church (Dubuque, Iowa) / History / From 1922 to the present
caption_attribution_description: English: The former rectory at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Dubuque, Iowa.
context_page_description: Saint Mary's Catholic Church is a former parish of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The church is located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States, at the corner of 15th and White Streets. The church is recognizable by its steeple– one of the tallest in the area. The church property was added to the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district in 2015, and the various buildings were included as contributing properties in the Washington Residential Historic District later in the same year.
context_section_description: In 1935, Father Aloysius Schmitt was ordained in Rome, Italy. He returned to the United States, and his first assignment was as an associate at Saint Mary's Church. In 1941, he was killed in the attack at Pearl Harbor, becoming the first American chaplain of any faith to die in the Second World War.
  In the early 1970s, the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were implemented. The parish removed the communion rail and placed a new altar in the sanctuary that faced the congregation. However, the original high and side altars were left largely intact.
  In recent years, St. Mary's Church had combined efforts with the nearby St. Patrick's Church. The two parishes shared administrative staff and school facilities.  The parish has been affected by the Priest shortage and a decline in membership as some families moved to suburban locations. The parish had a priest to lead Mass, but most of the administrative work was handled by a lay woman minister, the wife of a former U.S. Representative who is a deacon.
  In the 1990s, St. Mary's built a new handicapped entrance. This entrance is located at the northeast corner of the church and has an elevator. Before that, the church was not as accessible as other churches in the area.
  With a heavy debt load and a declining membership, the parish council recommended to the Archdiocese that the parish be closed.  In late 2009 it was announced that the parish would be closed.  On May 25, 2010, St. Mary's held its final mass as a Catholic parish with 700 attendees.  The building is still considered a church, but the parish is no longer active.
  The movie F.I.S.T., which was largely filmed in Dubuque, had a scene which featured exterior shots of St. Mary's Church.
  A book entitled "St. Marys: Finest church west of the Mississippi" covering the complete history of the church was published in August 2010.  In 2014 a conceptual plan (but no timeline or cost estimate) to renovate the campus to provide office space for small businesses, a community kitchen and 12 units of low income housing was jointly announced by the Dubuque Archdiocese, non-Catholic community groups such as Dubuque's Economic Development Department and the Washington Neighborhood Corporation, and Dubuque-based Gronen Restoration.
caption: St. Mary's Rectory
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