I love buildings and houses built with fieldstones. I think they are a reflection of the area since many of the stones are collected from the area and this beautiful old church in Manchester is no exception. A historic marker giving its history stands in front of it and reads:
The first Catholic church in the Manchester area was built by German settlers in Freedom Township in 1839 and dedicated to Saint Francis de Borgia. In 1863 Father Edward Van Lauwe was appointed pastor of Saint Dominic in Clinton, and Manchester was one of his missions. In 1870 thirty-five Irish families built the Church of the Assumption on Macomb Street in Manchester. Father Edwin Fisher, the pastor of Clinton and its missions, became the resident pastor in Manchester in 1909. In 1911 local craftsmen built this Neo-Gothic inspired church from fieldstones collected by farmers and salvaged from the foundation of the hotel that had stood on the site. It was dedicated in January 1912. Father Fisher designed the church and erected similar fieldstone churches at his missions in Blissfield, Tecumseh, and Brooklyn.
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