Tarentum museum to feature exhibit on former St. Ladislaus Church

During a four-month salvage job at the former St. Ladislaus Church in Natrona, Rachel Brown climbed into the ceiling and crawled through walls to research architecture at the 120-year-old building.

“I was in places of the church that people hadn’t been in 100 years,” said Brown, who wasn’t a member of Guardian Angels Parish but is a resident curious about local history.

“I wanted to honor the church and trace back through the changes.”

Her goal was to save items that made the church special and prevent those treasures from heading to a landfill.

She rescued stained-glass windows, solid oak pews, marble window sills, statues, classroom desks from an adjoining school, glassware, hat racks and more before the demolition.

Some of those items will be on display permanently at the Alle-Kiski Heritage Museum on East Seventh Avenue in Tarentum.

Brown will host a free presentation to launch the exhibit at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 14. She’ll give a detailed timeline of the church history and take questions during the two-hour event.

Jim Thomas, museum curator, believes the church exhibit will draw strong interest from the public.

“There was a lot of emotion involved in the closing,” he said. “People are still crying over it. It was such a beautiful building, and a lot of people don’t understand why it went the way it did.

“This will be very informative.”

St. Ladislaus, founded in 1893 and built in 1903, was impressive for its domed sanctuary, ornate carvings and oversized murals.

It was among five churches closed in 2022 by Guardian Angels Parish.

Most of the religious artifacts were removed and sold for other use. Stations of the Cross, for example, were removed, restored and relocated to Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Harrison. Work was paid for by an anonymous donor.

Otherwise, the church and school were a trove of eclectic items that ranged from classroom projectors and windows to soapstone, radiators and dishes.

There was a Tellers Organ partially paid for by Andrew Carnegie.

The stained-glass windows, which included about 60 individual panels, were Brown’s main focus.

“It was going to cost the parish $150,000 to have them removed,” she said. “They weren’t going to be able to do it.”

Destroying the windows wasn’t an option for Brown. She enlisted volunteers who dedicated countless hours to removing and packing them for sale.

“We were able to save every single one,” she said.

Brown facilitated a sale in the last days of the church that drew hundreds of people to purchase unique keepsakes. Larger items were sold online, and some were preserved for the museum.

Proceeds of about $20,000 benefited the parish, Brown said.

“The passion that I experienced from the people was as amazing as the building itself was,” Brown said.

“I decided that I wanted to collect every bit of information that I could and give people an accurate timeline.”

She might even pen a book one day about the impact of the church on the small river community, Brown said.

The upcoming event at the museum will be a historical presentation peppered with testimonials from longtime members.

“I know everyone is still charged up about the demolition, but we’ll stick only to the facts,” she said.

“We’ll show pictures and tell stories. Being able to have a piece of history to see is what’s important.”

The museum will be home to a large arched window, and it will also feature trinkets for sale from reclaimed pews and organ keys.

Tom Babinsack, parish business manager, credited Brown for preserving the church, albeit in piecemeal.

“She came out of nowhere, and it was amazing how she would deconstruct things and research,” Babinsack said.

“She would sit and listen to parishioners’ memories. And, now, she probably knows more about the church than anyone.”