| Additional Information: | In 1929, a 170-acre farm was purchased on which to construct a friary for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Commissariat. The following year, a Romanesque Revival style church was constructed containing a chapel as well as priests’ and clerics’ rooms. The St. Francis Friary is located at 2457 S. Browns Lake Drive.
In 1931, a group of Polish friars migrated from Pulaski, Wisconsin; the new seminary was dedicated; and classes began that fall for a bachelor’s degree program that was accredited by the University of Wisconsin System and was affiliated with Marquette University in Milwaukee and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The friary soon became a popular pilgrimage site for Polish-American Catholics as it housed copies of two cherished pictures, Our Lady of Czestochowa and Our Lady of Ostrobrama. An addition was built onto the church in 1957 containing a library, print shop, and seminar rooms. As the number of vocations decreased during the 1960s, St. Francis College Seminary was closed in 1969. During the 1980s, the friary began hosting retreats in addition to its continued use as a monastery. A major restoration of the friary’s main church was completed in 1983.
Since opening, pilgrims began donating religious statues to the friary which the friars began displaying outside in the grounds as their number increased. In 1935, the seminarians began major work on the friary grounds with substantial landscaping including trees, plantings, terraces, ponds, waterfalls, and a rock garden. Also that year, they constructed a series of fourteen monuments memorializing the Stations of the Cross, a Calvary Grotto, and the Our Lady of the Lourdes Grotto in what became referred to as the Valley of the Immaculate Conception. All of these projects were constructed of tufa rock from the Ohio River Valley. Soon thereafter, a pilgrimage office was established.
The Portiuncula Chapel was constructed on the friary grounds in 1947, a replica of the original chapel in Assisi, Italy, where St. Francis founded the Franciscan order. Sometime later, a large mosaic was erected on the front façade of the chapel.
In 1958, the Our Lady of the Lords Pavilion was constructed next to the friary of laminated wood and colored fiberglass to provide a setting for large outdoor services. The pavilion houses a white marble altar donated by and relocated from St. Andrew’s Church in Chicago. A support building was also constructed adjacent to the pavilion at that time.
A shrine that resembles a castle was constructed on the friary grounds in 1968 to house the mosaic picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Patroness of Poland.
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. |
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