St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church
a.k.a. Saint Peter's Church
Ash St., Lindsay, TXSt. Peter's Church is an unusual and impressive ecclesiastical monument. Few towns so small have a church of such size or architectural quality. Designed by a newly-arrived Dutch immigrant for a town of recent German immigrants, the church is far from the mainstream of American architecture of its time and reflects none of the dominant trends of early twentieth-century eclecticism. Instead, the building is of direct European ancestry, having been inspired by eleventh and twelfth-century German Romanesque models. St. Peter's Church exhibits a strong similarity in form and character to Maria Laach (1093-1156) in Germany, referred to by R. Furneaux Jordan in A Concise History of Western Architecture as "the quintessential Romanesque church, incorporating the Western themes of long nave, transept, and steep-roofed towers." The manner in which the large mass of the church dominates the surrounding town and countryside is similarly reminiscent of the European background. St. Peter's Church provides an important architectural statement of the ancestry of the German Catholics who founded and settled the town of Lindsay.
The farming community of Lindsay was founded in 1891 through the efforts of Anton and William Flusche, Catholic German immigrants who had previously established successful farm communities in Iowa, Kansas, and Texas. St. Peter's Parish was established a year later, in March of 1892, when the first Mass was celebrated at the home of William Flusche. The first church was a wood frame building, built that same year. In 1903 it was replaced by an imposing central-towered brick structure, designed by O. Klutho of St. Louis, which was devastated by a tornado in May 1917. Only the tower and a portion of the apse survived. Plans were immediately made for building a replacement structure. Much manual labor for the erection of the new church was provided by members of the parish, who salvaged bricks from the ruins of the earlier building and saved old windmill towers to be used as concrete reinforcements.
The architect of the new church, Frank A. Ludewig, was born in Holland (ca. 1870) and was practicing there before immigrating to St. Louis shortly before World War I which he predicted. Through contacts in the Catholic community, Ludewig obtained many commissions for midwestern Catholic churches to which he brought "the Flemish sense of functional and decorative brickwork." He remained active into the 1930s and died at an advanced age" at the Josephinum in Columbus (Worthington), Ohio, which he had designed in 1925.
The lavish interior wall decoration of the Lindsay church was largely done by another immigrant artist, Fridolin Fuchs, who had settled in St. Louis after emigrating from Switzerland. Fuchs' wall painting is a fine example of trompe l'oeil folk art. Painted stone and brick patterns cover the upper walls, with sculpture niches and religious figures adorning the walls around the altar. In addition to the masonry effects, beautiful stylized geometric and plant motifs are found throughout the church. Embellishing the coffered ceiling are painted medallions.. Another similarity to German churches is shown in the elaborate hand-carved wooden altar. On the half-dome, over the apse a biblical scene is painted which is reminiscent of the pictorial mosaics in the apses of Byzantine churches.
The church has been maintained in excellent condition as originally built, and has continually served the parish for over sixty years.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.