| Additional Information: | City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report:
The Blessed Martin House was a local Catholic organization founded in 1942 to promote interracial unity between Blacks and Whites and was originally located at a non-extant building at 746 West Washington Avenue. Renamed St. Martin House after the canonization of its namesake Martin de Porres in 1963, the organization offered an array of activities including sewing classes, summer children’s programs, a Golden Gloves boxing club, and by the 1980s, food assistance and help with finding employment from its non-extant location in the Triangle on West Washington Avenue. For a brief time, the St. Martin House also served as an orphanage. In 1952, the St. Martin House moved to a new, non-extant facility on Beld Street constructed entirely by volunteers, including local seminarians.
The arrival of more Spanish-speaking immigrants to Madison and Dane County during the 1970s encouraged the Catholic Diocese of Madison to address their needs, and the Spanish-speaking ministry Centro Guadalupano was formed by the newly created Diocese Office of Hispanic Ministry, as no local parishes had bi-lingual clergy or staff. Centro Guadalupano was established in 1977, with the leadership of Dolores Ann Silha, to aid the Latino/a population alongside the St. Martin House at their facility. Centro Guadalupano provided bilingual spiritual services including Spanish mass, children’s catechism classes, and sacramental preparation as well as English classes, a clothing program, and a food pantry. However, its spaces and the small chapel within the St. Martin House proved inadequate as the local Spanish-speaking population increased rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2002, the Centro Guadalupano and St. Martin House officially combined to become the Catholic Multicultural Center. That same year, the St. Martin House was demolished, and a new Contemporary style building was constructed in its place at 1862 Beld Street. The Catholic Multicultural Center continues to provide legal and spiritual services, technology classes, English and Spanish classes, meals and food pantry, clothing exchanges, and job placement services to this day. |
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