Holy Rosary
Catholic Church
Served by the Scalabrinian
missionaries since 1890
911 E. Missouri Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
<< The Fire of April 12, 1903 || Holy Rosary School History || The Lodges >>
(This material originally appeared in 1991 in the 100th Anniversary of Holy Rosary Parish booklet. The article was researched and written by Angelo Bongino.)
Holy Rosary School History
At first blush, a connection between Holy Rosary Parish and John Benoist, a self-proclaimed agnostic and Kansas City pioneer, seems as remote as Venus is to Mars. But it happened and Holy Rosary benefited.
Benoist, an errant Canadian Catholic, was considered an eccentric. By the date of his death in 1899, he had amassed an estate of $170,000. He left varying amounts to a number of charities, many of them Catholic. Holy Rosary was on the list.
Holy Rosary was the beneficiary of $7,500. Fr. Charles Delbecchi had a school building erected just to the south of the church. The same legacy that provided that school sent a larger sum of money to the Christian Brothers, who used a portion to build De LaSalle High School.
Before that, while the church was still a series of store front chapels, Sunday school was conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. They continued to do so after the permanent church was built. About that same time a Catholic grade school was started at 534 Tracy by the Sisters of St. Joseph who replaced the Sisters of Mercy to form Holy Rosary School in about 1919.
In 1920, Pastor Prospero Angeli organized a committee of Italians to raise funds for the school. The Comitato Coloniale, as it was called, saw that parish children who could not afford books or tuition were able to attend school. That same year, the Anges Ward Amberg Club, a Catholic women's group, began free health clinics in the school hours. Dr. D.M. Nigro was its first practitioner. Photo below. (The Silver Jubilee souvenir booklet also contained a history of the school. An Acrobat/pdf of the entire Silver Jubilee booklet is posted on the site.
In 1934, Scout Troop 70 used the school basement for its headquarters. In time church and social clubs used it in the same way.
In 1969, the school merged with St. John the Baptist School at Independence Avenue and Brooklyn and the building was virtually abandoned for a time.
Recently, the building has been the home for Don Bosco administrative offices. Thousands of meals each day are ordered from there to truck to the elderly and the needs. Classes originate there to repatriate immigrants from some 20 countries. Naturalization and English language are taught there as well.
Even wit all the changes over the years and the loss of identity, the lettering over the old school door still reads: HOLY ROSARY...
<< The Fire of April 12, 1903 || Holy Rosary School History || The Lodges >>
(This material originally appeared in 1991 in the 100th Anniversary of Holy Rosary Parish booklet. The article was researched and written by Angelo Bongino.)
Index for the entire series
The Founding and Early Years of the Parish || The 1920's to the 1940's
Fr. Donanzan's Successors || The Fire of April 12, 1903
Holy Rosary School History || The Lodges
Church Organizations History || Spirit of the Parish