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 St. Mary of the Lake Catholic church was first built in Culver
in 1897. In those days, it was located on the northeast corner of what is
today Lake Street and Lake Shore Drive (an empty lot today occupies the
spot). A lightning bolt to the steeple started the September, 1903 fire
that destroyed the building and effectively ended St. Mary’s as an active
parish with a church as its base.
Mass was celebrated off and on in Culver in the 40 years
following, sometimes in the lower level of the Carnegie library on Main
Street, and apparently sometimes in the El Rancho movie theater (today,
Culver’s only theater, on Lake Shore Drive).
It wasn’t until 1948, with the arrival of the legendary
Father Joseph Lenk, that St. Mary of the Lake began to take shape as the
parish it is today.
 At left: Fr. Joseph Lenk in 1953.
From a biographical sketch of Fr. Lenk in the July 2,
1954 Culver Citizen:
Father Lenk was born in Fort Wayne. He prepared for the
priesthood at St. Joseph’s College, St. Mary’s College, and Notre Dame University,
with theological studies at Mr. St. Mary’s Theological Seminary at Norwood,
Ohio.
He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Francis
Noll, D. D. in the Cathedral at Fort Wayne on June 3, 1939.
He had served for three years as assistant pastor at St.
Lawrence Church at Muncie when he entered the U. S. Army as a
chaplain. (Tour of duty, foreign service: Chaplain School at Harvard
University: appointment with the 91st Infantry Division on the West
Coast. Then overseas duty in M.T.O.,
North Africa and Italy. In recognition of the work of
the chaplains of the 5th Army after the armistice was signed, he enjoyed a
trip to Athens, Greece, Cairo, Egypt, and spent a month in the Holy Land.)
In March 1945, Father Lenk was separated from the service with
the rank of Major.
He became a staff member of the Veterans Administration
hospital at Hines, Ill., becoming senior chaplain the same month.
In 1947 Father Lenk was appointed first assistant to
Msgr. John S. Sabo, the Catholic dean of the South Bend area at Our Lady
Church. In September 1948, Father Lenk was appointed first resident
pastor of St. Mary’s Mission Church in Culver with the work of establishing
a Catholic parish and church in this community.
In December of 1948, Fr. Lenk oversaw the construction
of a “new” St. Mary of the Lake Church at the corner of College Ave. and
Plymouth Street, the present location of St. Mary’s. Fr. Lenk’s military
background probably contributed to his choice of church, a sheet metal
building in military Quonset hut style. One assumes that Fr. Lenk intended
from the start to eventually raise money to build a more permanent and
suitable church building.
On January 28, 1954, flames forced his hand. From the
Culver Citizen:
Knox, Monterey, and Plymouth Firemen Aid Culver at $25,00
Conflagration
Father Joseph A. Lenk, Pastor, Carries on in Inspiring Manner
Culver’s most disastrous fire in many years totally destroyed
St. Mary’s of the Lake Roman Catholic Church at the corner of College
Avenue and Plymouth Street early Thursday morning.
The loss was $25,000, fully covered by insurance.The original
Catholic Church in Culver met a similar fate in 1905.
Aroused by barking dogs at about 5:30 a.m. Mr. And Mrs.
Sam Strang, 122 College Avenue, were the first to discover the roaring
pyre.
When the Culver Fire Department arrived in quick order
the Quonset-type metal and laminated wood building was a mass of flames and
the heat was intense.
Firemen from Knox, Monterey, and Plymouth soon joined in the
heroic battle to control the conflagration and successfully kept it from
spreading to the surrounding homes.
Only the gutted vestibule of the 72 X 36 foot building
still stands. The church was built in December 1948 when Father
Joseph A. Lenk first came to Culver.
Cause of the fire is still undetermined but a faulty
space heater may have been responsible. Father Lenk found everything
in order when he left the church at 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Father Lenk lost many cherished personal belongings in
the tragedy, including a chalice given him by his parents at his ordination
as well as several mementoes from Army service.
Until a new church is built Catholic services will be
held at the El Rancho Theatre on Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. Holy
Mass will be celebrated on weekdays at the rectory on College Avenue.
Basic construction cost of a new Catholic Church in Culver has
been placed at $165,000, according to previous announcement.
The ultimate cost of the proposed church and St. Thomas More
off-campus club will be $250,000. The church will have a seating
capacity of 310.
Father Lenk, who also has a great personal following
among Culver Protestants, will celebrate the 15th anniversary of his
priesthood on June 3 of this year.
 The actual cause of the fire may be never known, though there
seems to have been some speculation that arson was a possibility.
Protestant attitudes towards Catholics in America had
evolved a great deal since the days of 1920s Indiana, when the Ku Klux Klan
gained power in the statehouse and swelling numbers (it is said that one in
every three white, male ,Protestant Hoosiers was a member of the group
between 1921 and 1925), largely on an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic
platform. But nonetheless, during Fr. Lenk’s early years in Culver, a cross
was burned on his lawn, according to several residents of the area at the
time (the story never made the press). Clearly, there was some negative
reaction to the arrival of a permanent Catholic parish in Culver.
Above: The Feb. 7, 1954 edition of Our Sunday Visitor
newspaper reports on the St. Mary's fire.
Catholic Mass was not allowed to be celebrated on the
campus of Culver Academies during this period, either (hence the creation
of the St. Thomas Moore Club in the basement of St. Mary’s church, at the
time of the Church’s construction. The Club functioned as a social and
religious gathering place for Academy students and their families).
If Father Lenk felt that the fire was intentional, he
never said so publicly, and the newspaper accounts of the day are notably
positive about Fr. Lenk, the parish, and the subsequent, successful efforts
to build a permanent St. Mary of the Lake Church in Culver.
In the same Culver Citizen that reported the fire, Fr.
Lenk took a moment to address readers:
At a time like this I am reminded of the challenging
words of Father Sorin, the founder of the University of Notre Dame, who,
after the institution had been razed by fire for the third time, said to
the brothers of the Holy Cross Order and the priests on the faculty:
“If everything were gone we would still rebuild.”
We have our faith, our health, our talent, our
people. The Catholic Church is composed of people, not real
estate. There is only one way to look: ahead.
With confidence in Almighty God and in our own ability, coupled
with the warm hearts of people of all faiths, we can look forward to a
beautiful new church in the foreseeable future.
I am particularly grateful for the kindly interest of
Culver’s ministers, the splendid work of our local firemen, and the fine expressions
of our non-Catholic friends. I have witnessed a solidarity in our
community spirit that is a genuine inspiration to me. In my six years
in Culver I have not seen its equal. Thank you all.
Indeed, whether an accident or arson, the fire that consumed
St. Mary of the Lake church in January, 1954, rather than signaling a
disaster for the parish, instead brought about the construction of the
structure that stands today.
The Oct. 13, 1948 Culver Citizen contains some
interesting facts about the parish at the time: “Ground will be broken
within the next two weeks for the erection of a new church structure for
the Culver Catholic parish, now officially known as Immaculate Heart of
Mary Church, according to Rev. Julian L. Lubo, pastor ...the decision was
made at a meeting of 55 members and friends of the parish at the East Shore
Inn Sunday night. Also attending the gathering were Rev. Jude, superior of
Divine Heart College at Donaldson, and Rev. Bernard Rotterman, superior of
the major seminary at Hales Corners, Wisc.
“The church will be built on the land
the parish purchased some time ago at the corner of College Avenue
and Plymouth Street, which is 180 by 170 feet in size, and will face on the
former street. The central structure will be 80 feet long and 36 feet wide,
with a parish hall on one side and a rectory on the other, both adjacent to
the church proper. Each of these will be 24 by 52 feet in size, with the
parish hall including a kitchen and restrooms besides the main social room.
The rectory will be a complete home for the parish priest.”
The article goes on to describe a
structure closer to our present-day building than what wound up being
built: the plan was for a brick building with a Romanesque interior and
“plaster walls in panels and Doric pilasters.” Obviously, something changed
between the plan and what finally happened. It is also interesting to note
that the parish priest at the time was not Fr. Joseph Lenk, who would lead
the building project, but Fr. Lubo. If the parish was actually named
“Immacualte Heart of Mary,” this was a temporary change…it had been “St
Mary of the Lake” since at least 1897.
The article noted that, “Since the
reorganization of the Culver parish (perhaps resulting in the temporary
name change? — ed.), it has been meeting in the library auditorium most of
the time, with the community building being used when the number of Culver
Summer School boys required the move a room with a larger seating
capacity.”
By Dec. 3, 1948, Fr. Lenk had arrived in Culver, having been
sent- according to Today’s Catholic from July, 1995, by Bishop John
F. Noll partly at the request of the Culver Academy administration, as CMA
had an increasingly Catholic populace in the form of Latin American
students- Lenk wrote the following to Bishop Noll:
“Just a few lines to inform you of our process at Culver.
Monday evening of this week I invited the members of the parish to the
rectory. After discussions of our problems at Culver in regard to the need
for a church, twenty one of the families expressed their desire to begin
construction of the church immediately on the plans I had shown you.
W.R. Baker from South Bend is our architect, and David
Burns from Culver, Indiana is our contractor. Labor is rather cheap
in Culver and it is very likely that the total cost of the new church will
not exceed $10,000.00.
I have not seen your friend, Mr. Radign, of Gary, Indiana in
regard to furniture. I have a stove to cook on, a table to eat from, and a
bed to sleep in, so additional furniture will be procured as soon as there
is a lessening of parish activities. Incidentally, it is our hope and
prayer that we will celebrate Midnight Mass in the new church.
I have made initial contacts at the Academy, and I am
making up a spiritual report as to the number of cadets who are not
Confirmed, have not made their First Communion, etc.
May I take this opportunity to thank you for your
generosity, understanding, and kindness in naming me pastor of Culver.
Begging a moment in your prayers for God’s blessings on
our work, I am your son as you are my father in the Mystical Body of
Christ…”
The letter’s return address was listed at 227 South Main
Street in Culver, where Lenk resided at the time.
According to the same Today’s Catholic article, “the
outgoing (Lenk) soon became well-known in Culver, although some Protestants
called him Mr. Priest or asked when Mrs. Lenk would be joining him.
Underterred by that, and the cross said to have been burned on his lawn,
Lenk worked on. The December 8, 1948 Culver Citizen reported:
A temporary structure to house the Catholic Church of Culver
is under construction at the rear of the, church property at College Avenue
and Plymouth Street.
According to Rev. Joseph Lenk, pastor, the temporary building
will cost $10,000 and seat 300. It is being built in anticipation of a
permanent church to be constructed as soon as materials are available.
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