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History of Saint Bernard Church |
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The City of Dayton Kentucky, where Saint Bernard
is located, came into being on March 1, 1848 when the General Assembly
of Kentucky incorporated the town of Jamestown, the eastern half of the
current city. The duly elected Trustees of Jamestown held their first
meeting on June 25, 1849. During this time there were 40 Catholic families living in Jamestown and attending mass at Corpus Christi Church, in Newport Kentucky or, using small boats, Saint Francis de Sales Church across the Ohio River in Fulton, now Cincinnati, Ohio. Feeling the need to have their own Church the Catholics of Jamestown, in 1849, formed two societies, the St. Joseph Society for men and the St. Mary Society for the women, each having a shared goal of erecting a local Church. By 1851 these societies had acquired a parcel of land for their church on Third Avenue between Clark and Benham Streets. They joyfully nicknamed it "God's Acre." The cornerstone for the first Catholic Church in Jamestown was laid in 1853 and by the end of 1854 a 40 by 80 foot brick building was erected and dedicated under the patronage of Saint Francis of Assisi. Bishop George Carrell, the first bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Covington, presided at the dedication. The new Saint Francis of Assisi Church was officially designated as "The Roman Catholic German Church of Jamestown Kentucky. As the Saint Francis community grew they soon recognized the need for a final resting place for deceased members. Acreage was purchased, just east of the boundaries of Jamestown, in 1858 and Saint Francis Cemetery came into being. While this cemetery is no longer active it has over 900 community members buried there. A devastating Ohio River flood ravaged Saint Francis Church in 1884 leaving it nearly 
beyond repair.. A new larger 40 by 112 foot church was erected in 1886.
Further recognizing the need to provide a Catholic education for the
children of the community a school building was completed, in 1888, on
property adjoining the new church. In 1907 two major Ohio River floods
caused severe damage to the church building causing it to be declared
"unsafe." To provide temporary repairs logging chains were placed
around the foundation to provide the support required.One year later, in 1908, the Saint Francis Community purchased a tract 
of land, the current location, on Fifth Avenue bounded by Berry and
Jackson Streets. A cornerstone was laid in 1909 but a lack of finances
only permitted the foundation work to be completed.Saint Francis of Assisi Church was finally completely destroyed by two major floods in January and March of 1913  prompting
the community to complete work at the new location. On August 23rd,
1914 the first Mass was celebrated in the newly finished church
dedicated under the patronage of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron
of the pastor Rev. Bernard Greifenkamp. Again financial constraints
limited the new church building to having only a "mission-type" front
leaving the current tower and vestibule to be completed at some later
date.A building on the property, the previous home of James MacArthur, a river captain and one of the former property owners, was used as a rectory until 1925, when a new Saint 
Bernard School building was erected on property adjacent to the new
church building, the lower grades continued to use Saint Francis of
Assisi School on Third Street. The upper grades were being taught in
the basement hall of the new church.The beautiful Romanesque facade and tower were added to Saint Bernard Church in 1930 giving it the familiar outside appearance we see today. The present rectory was built on the site of the old MacArthur home in 1957. In 1962, Saint Bernard was the home parish to more than 900 families with 490 children attending the school. At this time the City of Dayton had no flood levee and the Ohio River floods, while not damaging Saint Bernard Church and School, continued to devastate many of the homes in the area. These floods forced more than 3000 people to leave the city and seek refuge by purchasing homes in neighboring, flood free, communities. This exodus accounts for a rapid decrease in the size of the Saint Bernard community. In 1984 the City of Dayton built a long-needed flood levee protecting the entire city from the ravages of the Ohio River. This prompted new housing construction and an Industrial Park spurring growth in the population. As the number of people in the city began to grow so did the community of Saint Bernard until today we have nearly 400 families. Growth in the school attendance prompted the addition of a kindergarten in 1999. There are currently over 100 students registered in our school. |
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