The History of Our Parish

We Built a New Brick Church

As St. Henry Parish continued to grow the need for a permanent, larger church building became apparent. 

Father Henry Hussmann, our pastor, called on Mr. L. Wessbecher, an architect of St. Louis, to design a new edifice for us.  We laid the corner stone for the new church in 1905.  We built the new church, designed in the Romanesque style of architecture, on land donated to the parish by Mr. H. J. Deal.  The 1905 church is the same beautiful church we regularly use to this very day [2003].

Father Hussmann was not to remain here long to enjoy the beautiful new church built under his direction.  In 1909 Archbishop Glennon transferred Father Hussman to St. Henry's Parish in St. Louis, where he had served as assistant in the early 1890s.  A new church, also designed by L. Wessbecher, was then under construction at his new assignment in St. Louis.  The two churches, St. Henry's in Charleston and St. Henry's in St. Louis, both having originated on the same drawing board, bear a marked resemblance, one to the other.

Excerpted from St. Henry Parish 1873 - 1973.