Founded by the Lithuanian community in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the 20th century, St Casimir’s Church has long been the gathering place of the largest Lithuanian parish in Western Pennsylvania.
Although the church façade has remained unchanged, the Lithuanian language is no longer spoken here, as the building now houses luxury apartments.
Robertas Medonis, a member of the local Lithuanian community, shows the traces of Lithuanian identity in Pittsburgh. According to him, St Casimir’s Church is the most beautiful church in the city. This is also where his grandparents met.
“My great-grandparents were parishioners more than a hundred years ago. My grandmother grew up in the church, and my grandfather was the organist and choir director at the time,” he says.
Although the church closed in 1992, Medonis was able to attend the Lithuanian mass there in his youth.
“I was a graduate in 1985, and I remember going to Lithuanian mass in this church. The mass left a deep impression on me. The church and its interior are fabulous in my memory,” he says.
“It was built in 1902, with a Romanesque exterior, but the interior was very colourful. I remember the hand-carved Stations of the Cross from Austria, many paintings and statues. It was a very beautiful church, so it’s a pity that others won’t get to see it,” the man adds.
He also recalls conversations with older parishioners, who told stories about the great past of the church.
“I was talking to an old parishioner named Brasalskas, who died 10 years ago when she was 90 years old. She told me stories from her youth, from the 1930s and 1940s. She said that at that time, the church was packed for Sunday mass, with only those who arrived early finding a seat,” Medonis says.
In the past, there were eight Lithuanian parishes in Western Pennsylvania. Each parish also had its own school where the Lithuanian language was taught.
“There was also a convent next to the church, where Lithuanian nuns and a pastor lived. And the nearby school was not only notable for its Lithuanian language teaching but also for its basketball team, which won many state titles,” Medonis explains.
Today, St Casimir's Church is closed. The Lithuanian church and school buildings have been converted into luxury apartments.
“This church was a really important place for Lithuanians in Pittsburgh. There was a time when you could freely speak Lithuanian in this place,” says architectural historian Vaidas Petrulis.
“The church itself was not demolished because Pittsburgh doesn’t have the huge real estate pressure that, for example, New York has. So, they didn’t demolish the church to build a skyscraper. But it was converted into residential apartments,” he adds.
According to him, it is not necessarily a bad thing that the church is no longer serving its original purpose. On the contrary, it is a symbol advancing living conditions of the Lithuanian community.
“In the 1950s and 1960s, the Lithuanian community in the US started to change, to get better off, they moved to the suburbs where it was safer to live. Others moved to California, which at that time offered better jobs. Therefore, Lithuanians gradually abandoned this place,” Petrulis explains.
According to him, the remaining buildings testify to the former strength of the Lithuanian community.
“The area around St Casimir’s Church is dominated by small two-storey houses. The building of the former Lithuanian school is one of the largest buildings in the area. This means that there was a need for a Lithuanian school of this size to accommodate the number of pupils,” Petrulis says.