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Congratulations to Basil Knebel of Eden, S.D., on successfully guessing the location of Dakotafire’s July/August Community MysteryPix contest! The next Community MysteryPix contest will be held in September. Until then, stay alert to the details in your community, because you never know when something you pass by on a daily basis might be featured, earning you some cool rural swag, and the opportunity to brag about the beauty in your everyday surroundings!
St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church is one of the oldest buildings in Hoven, S.D.
Built over a period of a decade, ending in 1921, with $250,000 collected from 75 parish families, it is estimated that the “Cathedral on the Prairie” would cost at least $25 million—and possibly more than $40 million, depending on who you ask—to construct today.
“Fr. (Anthony) Helmbrecht went around and he kind of expected—or really encourage—families to donate $1,000,” said RoseMarie Reuer, a lifelong member of St. Anthony’s who gives tours of the church. “In 1920, that was a lot of money. They mortgaged their land, and they dug deep, deep, deep in their pockets, so they could help pay for the church.”
The building’s 40 Bavarian stained glass windows, which cost $9,000 when they were new, would cost roughly $10,000 each to replace today, for a total cost of $400,000—more than one and a half times the cost to build the entire structure almost 100 years ago.
In the 1960s, the church’s communion rail was removed, but a more recent priest wanted it replaced. The price tag to replace the large marble railing—$80,000—was higher than parishioners thought they could fund, but an unexpected chain of events in 2003 led to a donation that made it possible.
Read about this and other stories of hope for the future in Dakotafire’s July/August community feature on Hoven, S.D., available next week!
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- Behind this side door of St. Anthony’s of Padua Catholic Church in Hoven, S.D., lies nearly 100 years of memories for locals.
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- The Catholic church in Hoven, S.D., is named for St. Anthony of Padua.
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- The 40 stained glass windows in St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Hoven, S.D., cost a total $9,000. Today, those same windows, made by Bavarian artists, would cost an estimated $400,000 to replace.
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- An unexpected chain of events in 2003 led to the installation of an $80,000 communion rail.
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- St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Hoven, S.D., can seat 1,000, and does so during it’s largest annual fundraiser each year, Christmas at the Cathedra.
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- Parishioners of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church woked together to restore the interior paintings and plaster in the 1980s.
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- Parishioners of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church woked together to restore the interior paintings and plaster in the 1980s.
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- The Lord’s Supper, depicted at the bottom of the high altar at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Hoven, S.D., was all white until a local artist painted it.
