A Brief History of a Romanesque Church in Mount Rainier
St. James Catholic Church is hard to miss on the Route 1 corridor and its history is also worth a look.
Completed in 1926, the large Romanesque church at 3700 Rhode Island Ave. in Mount Rainier was built out of brick and stone on a steel skeleton in a grand style common to Catholic churches of that era.
Separate buildings added later for a school, rectory and convent nearby add to the church complex, giving it a major presence along Route 1.
The church got its start in 1908 as a mission of St. Francis de Sales, the oldest continuous congregation in D.C., with a complicated history dating back to the 1700s.
Like other Catholic churches on the Route 1 corridor, St. James flourished for decades due to its proximity to Catholic University in Brookland, but saw a decline in attendance by the 1970s due to changes in the area’s demographics.
In 2004, the church was taken over by priests from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, a conservative Catholic institute started in Argentina in 1984, and it has since grown due to outreach to Central American immigrants, Filipinos and younger families in the area.
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nice history lesson on St James Church. I grew up in that parish in the 1970’s and 1980’s The school closed in 1971 and a lot of us kids went to St Jerome’s in Hyattsville
I grew up in Mt. Rainier during the late 60s into the 70s. My father and I would walk to St. James every Sunday morning regardless of the weather through the small town passing the 5 and Dime before it was G.L.U.T. Sometimes we walked through the alley behind the old firehouse.
Dad was a lector for many many masses and that Midwest deep voice along with his towering presence truly caught the congregation’s attention and held it. Back then there was Monsignor Rev. Albert Hughes, Fr. O’Connell who was very old and also was a priest during WW2. The story was he was imprisoned by the Nazis and didn’t fare very well mentally. There was also Fr. Jimenez who presided over the Spanish Masses. And who could forget Fr. Nagel who would call you out in front of the entire congregation should you arrive late for mass. There was morning coffee and donuts in the school cafeteria which was later named The Rev. Albert Hughes Room. And the Deacons were wonderful; Deacon Forbes and Deacon Conrad.
As the 80s arrived we lost Fr. Hughes that Oct 1980. The last time we I saw him was when he was hanging out on the front stoop of the church with we CYO teen club members on our way camping. The new Monsignor Fr. Wharton arrived on his motorcycle which we teens thought was very cool. We had Fr. Worch, Fr. Bober and Fr. Cavey. Still had coffee and donuts. After Fr. Hughes passed, my father followed a few months later in Feb. 1981. There was the Sunday a.m. folk mass though I forget the time that service was..9 a.m.? 9:30?
I could go on and on…so many stories and histories of the hundreds, maybe thousands of congregants who passed through Saint James’ doorways since 1926. I truly, TRULY miss those days.
Wow! Thank you for sharing!
You are very welcome Alison. Great to see younger people interested in the history of Saint James and share some of the memories plus “people stories”. Too bad the school closed; I was one of the many who was transferred to Saint Jerome’s in Hyattsville. All of my siblings attended Saint James when we moved to Mount Rainier from D.C. “D “Street in 1961. I think my mother said she and dad paid 16K for the house. Our house was built in 1916. We lived next to a WW1 Veteran Hank Reese and his wife Agnes was a Ziegfeld Follies dancer. Mr. Reese kept the most beautiful back and front yards – I would compare it to “The Secret Garden”. Look into the Soap Box Derby Races on Eastern Avenue and Old Saddleback where families would picnic in summer and ride sleds down the hills in winter prior to the area in. Here’s to Mount Rainier’s “Renaissance”! Keep making memories and stories to report. MM Avelleyra