St Therese National Historic description
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United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
NPSForm10-900 OMBNo.1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
St. Therese Catholic Church
Lee County, Kentucky
Narrative Description
Summary Paragraph
St. Therese Church and Oratory (LE-160) is located in Lee County Kentucky on Hwy 399, approximately 4 miles northwest of Beattyville, seat of the county, and 2 miles north of the Kentucky River. The structure is a wood frame clapped board church on a concrete block foundation. The area proposed for listing includes the single contributing structure, and 1 acre.
The Lot:
The Church/Oratory sits on a small rise approximately 15 feet above, and east of Hwy 399; the small hill is covered with native trees and shrubs. On top of the small rise the woods open into a small clearing containing the building. With a steep horse shoe drive and a level front lot consists of less than 1 acre of clear space surrounded by thick woods. The cleared site extends two hundred feet along Hwy 399. The entire property under ownership of the Diocese of Lexington is 220 acres. A U.S. Geological survey marker is located on the northwest corner of the church building site (104_0970). The original access path is still visible and runs down to the Contrary Creek settlement school site.
The white church with its red roof sits in brilliant contrast to the surrounding green of the forest. On the north side of the church there is a small gravel parking lot mostly covered with grass that runs the length of the front of the church and gradually returns to lawn on either side of the building. From the lot, the surrounding Appalachian countryside is visible and broken only by a small ranch style house which lies directly across Hwy 399.
The Church Exterior:
The building was constructed in 1948 from the original Contrary Creek Settlement School Church, which was located on another site within the larger St. Therese property. The Settlement School Church was erected in the 1920s, before the construction of State Route 399, and became the first Catholic Church in eastern Kentucky. Lacking the funds to build a new church, the local Catholic community disassembled the original church and rebuilt a new church, with a different form, it in its current location. The kitchen and living quarters for the Sisters, and a room for the circuit-riding priest, were added. The remains of the original site can still be identified by the foundation ruin located about a mile away down by Contrary Creek.
The church oriented to cardinal directions; its front entry opens to the west. The church has an offset T-plan, with the chapel forming the base of the T, and the kitchen, living quarters, and priest’s room
forming the crossing bar of the T. That plan leads to a crossing gable roof covering the building.
The church is of wood frame and clapboard construction, with a concrete block foundation showing anywhere from 1 to 10 courses. Windows, unless otherwise stated, are composed of 6-over-6
double-hung wooden sashes and are framed by simple flat wooden lintels, sills, and vertical boards.
The building is covered by a red raised metal roof with eaves that project slightly and metal gutters.
An entry vestibule, consisting of wooden clapboard construction dominates the front façade (picture 104_0960). The door is wood, consisting of four horizontal panels covered by an aluminum storm
door. Concrete steps with two metal handrails lead up to the center door, which lies directly beneath the vestibule’s gable roof and a small metal light fixture. In addition to the vestibule, the west face of
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
NPSForm10-900 OMBNo.1024-0018
The church contains two windows—one on each side of the vestibule, and a small louvered vent in the gable. A small wooden cross sits on the peak of the center gable (picture 104_0928-0930). The north side of the church (left, when looking from in front of the church, picture 104_0931-0928), contains 4 windows and a door in a w-d-w-w-w rhythm. The door is wooden consisting of a small square window and two horizontal panels, and is covered by an aluminum storm door. The south side of the church (picture 104_0931-0932) contains a covered outside staircase, a concrete block chimney, three windows, and a 5-panel wooden door. The door is near the center of this side, and has a small wooden open staircase that at one time provided entry, but has been closed off from the inside. On each of these sides, small single-sash 6-light windows are found in the basement level, directly below each main-floor window.
The back side addition has equally-simple design elements, and contains multiple entry points. Two entries occur on the west side, one on each side of the church; these doorways parallel the church’s
front entry. The northern (left) portion of that back addition has a w-w-d-w pattern, and wooden steps that rise to a wooden door with four lights, which is covered by an aluminum storm door. The western
face (right) of the addition has the reverse fenestration pattern, w-d-w-w, with wooden steps and door that match those on the other side of that face. The southern face of the back addition has a large double door entry at ground-level, giving greater access to the basement’s floor level (pictures
104_0934-0935).
Above that door is a single centered window, and above it, a louvered wooden vent.
The rear of the back addition (east side) side of the building is a continuous plane broken into 3 parts: the two wings and a central section. The left wing contains 3 windows on the main level, and 2 small windows in the foundation. The central section contains a brick chimney that rises to a crossing gable roof, a main-floor window flanking the chimney on each side, and a small foundation window
below the upper windows. The right-side wing contains a four-panel door without an exterior stair, and two windows to the right of that, and two small foundation windows below. The roof’s down spouts once led to a cistern, located ten feet away from the building, in the yard directly behind the chimney.
The northern façade of the back addition is a single story that sits on a concrete block foundation. This side has a small rectangular wood framed window which has been blocked from the inside. The main floor has a centered window, and a centered wooden vent below the gable (picture 104_0941).
The Church interior:
Access to the Church is achieved through the entry vestibule. Two plain unadorned confessionals are located to the right as one enters the chapel. The original oak pews carved in the Romanesque
style remain; they are unpainted and in their original condition. There is a metal tabernacle on the adoration altar, located in the center of the main chapel against the partition behind the altar of sacrifice. The altar and lectern are constructed of functional pine, also contained with in this space are several examples of local craftsmanship in the form of a wicker sanctuary bench and several curved oak chairs, all made by Zack Gilbert, who was the caretaker of the property from 1940-1960.
The walls are covered with wallpaper for the most part, and the parts that are bare plaster in the fellowship hall are painted white. The floor is pine but covered by a worn stripe-patterned carpet. A small stove sits near the outside wall to the right just about in the center of the hall
Two statues remain in the church, which are the mother of Jesus as the Immaculate Conception and a statue of the parish’s patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux.
The residence portion of the structure consists of two small bedrooms, parlor, kitchen, and on the north (left) side, a priest’s quarters. The bedrooms were the living space for the women of the order and then became used as a private retreat and for weekly rummage sales that benefitted the community. The structure is currently used only as a Catholic Oratory, which is the name given to a place for study and reflection.
Changes over time:
There have been several changes over the last sixty years; metal banister poles have been added to both sides of the entry. The entrance doors to the left and right of the church just below the sanctuary platform have been blocked off and the steps have been removed. In the 1950s, storm windows were added to the living quarters, two of which are broken, and a small wing along the parlor located in the northwest corner, which contained a toilet and woodshed, has been removed. The current metal roof replaced the shingle roof in the 1990s.
The structure’s interior is in poor condition. The plaster ceilings are cracking and peeling in the residences along with the wallpaper, which dates to the 1980s. Several of the original windows are painted shut and the rope pulleys are broken throughout the structure. The reliquary no longer remains at the property, having been moved several years ago to Queen of All Saints in Beattyville.
Regular church services were discontinued in the 1990s but the church parishioners have retained the keys to continue using the structure as an oratory. Suffering from basic neglect (pictures
104_0957-0960,104_0935), the structure shows no visible structurally based barriers to preservation.last updated 04/27/2016 jm