| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
The St. Bernard Catholic parish, formally organized in 1911, was the first Catholic parish in the City of Wauwatosa. Services were initially held at the site of the future church along Harwood Avenue in a house. Planned in 1916 and completed in 1918, a new church was constructed on the site. An adjacent school, under the direction of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, was completed in 1919. A convent was completed in 1922. A new school, complete with twelve classrooms, gymnasium, and cafeteria, replaced the old one in 1955. A new contemporary style church and rectory, designed by the architecture firm Brust and Brust, was completed in 1963. In 1980, the Tosa Community Food Pantry was established, and in 1991, the Sinsinawa Dominicans sisters left the school. The rectory was relocated to a property behind the church and school at 7517 Lincoln Place in 2000, and extensive renovations, including new offices, gymnasium, and elevator, were undertaken the same year. The former rectory and convent building were demolished. In 2010, Wauwatosa Catholic, a new elementary school, was organized in conjunction with the St. Pius X congregation.
2024: The Saint Bernard Catholic Church is a Contemporary style building with an irregular footprint consisting of a rectilinear main block with low-profile, one-story transepts extending from the north ends of the east and west elevations, a semi free-standing bell tower at the southeast corner, and one-story triangular entrance vestibules extending from the façade and hidden by extended outer angled brick walls. The main block has a shallow-pitched prow gable roof with overhanging eaves. The roof is sheathed in rolled roofing and decorative V-shaped dark metal fascia wraps around the eaves with dentil-like ornamentation. The building is clad in common bond red brick with limestone trim and the foundation is concrete. The façade faces south and towers over the low-profile entrance vestibules and decorative outer brick walls that angle back toward the church façade and meet at the center, concealing the entrances on either side. The façade consists of two angled walls that form an obtuse angle projecting at the center. At the center of the façade is a large depiction of Saint Bernard cast in limestone panels that extends from the bottom of the overhanging eaves to the flat roof of the entrance vestibule. Decorative brickwork is also incorporated into the wall with off-set rows of Greek cross cutouts after every three bricks. The crosses are infilled with glazed colored tiles except for the top and bottom two rows that are infilled with brick.
The bell tower is semi free-standing at the southeast corner of the building connected to the church by a small room adjacent to the east church entrance. The bell tower has an H-like plan and it rises taller than the church building with an even taller green, metal Latin cross extending from the center of the tower. The lower three quarters of the tower consists of V-shaped walls constructed of common bond red brick limestone block corners resting on wider limestone blocks. The limestone corners rise above the brick walls to form the open belfry. |
|---|
