The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 14

MnrunADunnn EAST HID OCTOBER 4, 19 PAGE 2 Apartments in works for Payne and Baxter -i "fill iilMfiirriMVTMri I mi 'i fi'-mfrtiai its I PHOTO BY BUD KRAFT Members of St. Matthias attended a Sunday Mass. The parish was established in the 1950s. Strength in numbers St. Matthias parish has always pulled together 9' St.

Aloysius Location: 1129 Payne St Date founded: 1891 Architect: Walter C. Wagner. First pastor: The Rev. Joseph O'Grady Current pastor: The Rev. James E.

Wafzig Seating capacity: 250 Peak membership: 200 households, 1940s-50s Current membership: 100 households Parish boundaries: Rogers, Rubel and Payne streets and Lexington Road Attached school: Grades 1-8, operated most years (excluding 1920-24) from early 1900s to present, since 1912 by Sisters of Mercy Notable parishioners: Monsi-gnor Alfred W. Steinhauser, its pastor 1941-1952, founding principal of Trinity High School and St. Francis of Assisi pastor 1968-1974. Died 1985. History: The church was built in 1891 at parishioners' request after St.

Brigid moved out of the neighborhood to the Original Highlands and its building was sold. Because St. Aloysius school is the only large building in the neighborhood, it has been used-for weddings, receptions, meetings and other gatherings. Membership in the small parish began to decline about 15 years ago as the neighborhood aged, property converted to rental and younger families moved away. from the area in the early 1980s, said many parishioners drew their strength from the Rev.

William Gries-baum, who helped found the church. "He was there for everyone," Arnold said. "No matter what (denomination) you were, he was there for you." Griesbaum died in October 1983 after having a heart attack on his way to preach at the funeral of the Rev. Bernard Boone, former pastor of St. Brigid Catholic Church.

In its heyday, the church had more than 500 families and more than 500 children attending the grade school. Kay Bray, like many parishioners, volunteered in the school cafeteria during the week. Spunky church holds out hope Continued from Page One whether to reopen this fall. If the parish closes, it would be the first time the neighborhood has not had a Catholic church in 122 years. St.

Brigid was established in 1873. After it moved out in 1890, the building on Baxter Avenue was sold, and the Rev. Joseph A. O'Grady established St. Aloysius nearby on Payne in 1891 at the request of St.

Brigid parishioners who remained in the neighborhood. A new school building was constructed in 1946, under the leadership of the Rev. Alfred W. Steinhauser, who served there from 1941 to 1952. A new church was built in 1957, and in subsequent years the small parish's loyal supporters pitched in to do all they could to support the church and school while the neighborhood aged and younger families gradually moved away.

The largely elderly population in the neighborhood now is both a reason for the church's and school's decline, and a reason why it's important for the church to remain, parishioners say. If the church closes, "it's going to be very hard for us elderly people" to travel to another church, Sawdey said. "St. Aloysius is the reason I stayed in the neighborhood. I wanted to go there.

I'm just happy here. It's always been home. It's a small church, and I prefer it to the large churches where you don't have the closeness we have here." Membership has dwindled to about 100 families with top weekend Mass attendance at about 50 to 60 people, said the Rev. James Wafzig, the church's pastor since 1986. And although Wafzig says Mass at 8:30 a.m.

every weekday, nobody attends, except the schoolchildren on Wednesdays, he said. One sunny morning last week, his only company was two 11-year-old altar servers from the school. Two adults used to come to weekday Mass, Wafzig said, but one died and the other is now in a nursing home. Wafzig can't remember when a baby was last baptized there. Kenney has watched the neighborhood change from almost solidly Catholic to a mixture, with rental property constituting about half the residences now.

Many of those who move in apparently are not Catholic, and Wafzig said he's not sure it's the role of the church to, try to convert them, especially if they are content in another faith. Kenney has counted 38 houses along Payne. He said that, when he was a youngster, 24 of those households went to St. Aloysius. Now it's down to nine.

Fifty years ago life revolved around the church and school, and working at the church was a niaiii recreaiion for neighborhood men, Kenney recalled. Like Burt, Wafzig has mixed feelings about the situation. He notes that some large parishes have one priest for 1,500 families. "How can you justify one priest here and one priest there?" he asked. "It's a luxury, in a way, to have such a small group." At the same time, size doesn't necessarily denote importance, he said.

"Who's to say where the spirit is?" Church-closure hearings slated The seven Jefferson County parishes slated for closing and the six to be merged have requested hearings to plead their cases before members of the commission that devised the reorganization plan. The hearings will be held at the churches. Schedule: Oct. 22 6:30 p.m., St. Ignatius Martyr, 1816 Rangeland Road.

Oct. 23 6 p.m., St. Polycarp, 1 t. Shuttle replacing bridge for cut-off mall workers "We would bake pies on Tuesdays and Fridays," said Bray, whose seven children attended St. Matthias.

"I loved every minute of it." As the neighborhood's racial makeup began to change in the 1970s, many parish families began leaving. "People just began moving out of the neighborhood," Arnold said. "With their children not going to the school, it just fell off." Because of falling enrollment, the archdiocese in 1984 proposed merging St. Matthias School with others under several consolidation plans. But the archdiocese backed off after protests.

Just eight years later, however, St. Matthias decided on its own to close the school due to falling enrollment and rising education costs. Bridgeha-ven, an agency that serves people with mental illness, moved into the former school in September 1994. Across the street from St. Matthias is the new and rapidly growing Canaan Missionary Baptist Church.

A predominantly black church, it signals an ongoing change in the makeup of the neighborhood. But in the past three years, St. Matthias has attracted 150 new families, 65 since the beginning of the year. The Rev. Gene Scheich, pastor, said the growth may signal a revitalization in the church.

"For a long time you wouldn't see any little ones," said Pat Hourigan, who has attended the church for 30 years. "Now it's just like it used to be." Three weeks ago parishioners received the news of the proposal to close the church as they were redoing its interior. In addition to giving the church new paint and carpeting, they have replaced the pews that had been there since 1963 with cushioned burgundy chairs. As they had 45 years ago, parishioners chipped in to help refurbish the church. "The only reason we've been able to get things done is because of our people," Scheich said.

Many parishioners have begun wearing yellow ribbons to represent their hopes of keeping the church open. St. Matthias will plead its case Oct. 28. "It's almost breaking my heart," Bray said.

"My seven children went to school there; all of them had their First Holy Communions, weddings, graduations, the funeral for my husband. I almost cry thinking about it." She said this year's pow-wow, called Day of the Wolf, will honor tribal elders and be dedicated to Marie Mountain Collins, former vice president of the Red Crow Council who died last spring. Admission to the pow-wow is $4 for senior citizens, $3 for children ages 6-12, free for younger children and $5 for others. Creighton said proceeds are used to pay the $10,000 in prize money for winners of dance and drum competitions. The fairgrounds is off Interstate 65's Exit 112 at Bernheim Forest.

St. Joseph, By MARTHA ELSON Staff Writer A vacant corner at Baxter Avenue and Payne Street in Irish Hill that was once intended for a diner will become subsidized apartments managed by the Housing Authority of Louisville, Woodbine Construction Co. started construction last week on the six-unit project, which is expected to be finished by March, said Julie Kredens, the authority's spokeswoman. St. Aloysius Catholic Church, 1129 Payne, which originally owned the land, sold it several years ago to the BaxterPayne Partnership of David Barhorst and Mose Putney for the diner.

But Putney and Barhorst decided on a Lexington Road site instead and sold the property to the housing authority for $108,000 in the spring of 1992. (Putney, who has taken over the diner project on his own, said last week that he hopes to open it next year.) St. Aloysius parishioner Dorothy Woodard hopes the apartments will generate new students for the church school, which is slated to close along with the church under a Louisville Archdiocese reorganization plan. The lot, which is slightly under a half-acre, is zoned for commercial use, and no rezoning was required for the brick apartments. Occupants will pay 30 percent of their income for rent.

Average rents for the three-bedroom units will be about $280 per month. To qualify, renters must make less than 80 percent of the area median income. That means the maximum one person could make would be $21,150, and the maximum for a family of four would be $30,250. Some neighborhood residents had expressed concerns in the past about children's safety at the busy corner. The property will be fenced and will have parking in back.

There's a "big market" for such housing, said Mike Godfrey, the authority's deputy executive director. the city to discuss the situation. The alternative for walkers was to trudge back up Sherburn and around to the new Bowling extension. "Obviously, they were very upset over it," said Mallgate bookkeeper Rosemary Shaw, who said the management office received phone calls all day after the bridge closed. "It's kind of a long walk going around." TARC responded by instituting a new detour service that turns onto Sherburn from Mallard Creek Road (off Bowling), picks up people at Mallgate and turns around at Executive Park office complex across the street from Mallgate.

TARC received permission from HFH which owns Executive Park, to turn around in its parking lot, said Lea Rafferty, TARC's transportation director. The Bashford ManorOxmoor Circulator bus, which normally traveled along Sherburn and across the bridge to the mall, stopped coming down Sherburn after the bridge closed. Under the detour plan, the circulator will pass by Mallgate about every 45 minutes. For more schedule information, call 585-1234. KIDFEST: Saturday Sunday 2-6 p.m.

Zippo the Clown Magician KidCare ID Project Entertainment: Rheingold Band Doppler-Addler Band LOUISVILLE Ms OUTDOOR FESTIVAL EVENT lift! St. Matthias Location: 2200 Dixie Highway Date founded: December 1950 Architects: Walter C. Wagner and Joseph H. Potts. First pastor: The Rev.

William C. Griesbaum. Current pastor: The Rev. Gene Scheich. Seating capacity: 500.

Peak membership: 575 families in the 1970s. Current membership: 327 families. Parish boundaries: East along Algonquin Parkway from its intersection with Cane Run Road to McCloskey Avenue, south to Bernheim Lane, east to the Illinois Central tracks, south and then west along the tracks to Ralph Avenue, northwest to Millers Lane and then along Old Millers Lane back to Cane Run and its intersection with Algonquin. Attached school: Grades 1-8, 1953 to 1992, run by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. By MARTHA ELSON Staff Writer Mallgate Apartment dwellers who relied on walking across the old Sher-burn Lane bridge to get to their jobs at Mall St.

Matthews found themselves on the far side of Beargrass Creek without a paddle last week. But a new TARC detour, started last Thursday with help from St. Matthews Mayor Art Draut, will enable walkers to hop on the bus at Mallgate and ride around to the mall via the new Bowling Boulevard extension. Sherburn closed Sept. 23 at the creek, where the old bridge has been torn out.

It will remain closed while a new bridge is built as part of the mall expansion. The bridge project, part of $1 million in expansion improvements being financed by St. Matthews, is expected to take about six weeks. In the meantime, Draut told the Sept. 26 City Council meeting that he had alerted TARC of the problems for Mallgate dwellers, some of whom do not have cars and moved there specifically so they could walk to work.

Mallgate representatives had called By PAUL BALDWIN Staff Writer When ground was broken for St. Matthias Catholic Church in September 1951, it was a time of heady growth for the Archdiocese of Louisville. St. Matthias, which was started to serve a heavily Catholic area of south Louisville and Shively along Dixie Highway, was one of five parishes established in a small area of Louisville in the 1950s. Today St.

Matthias is one of seven Jefferson County churches that the archdiocese has proposed closing. When it began, the parish was populated by blue-collar families, many of them working at nearby distilleries, tobacco operations and the Rubber-town complex. When their day jobs ended, the residents went to work building the parish. Kate Sullivan, a St. Matthias parishioner until the mid-70s, said she and other church members spent weeks cleaning and remodeling an old farmhouse for use as a rectory.

Her husband and other men of the parish built its first church in the evenings and on weekends. The white, frame building, now used for storage, still sits at the corner of Dixie Highway and Wingfield Lane. "We all pitched in," said Sullivan, who now attends St. Elizabeth Ann Seton but is still a member of the St. Matthias Rosary Guild.

"I cooked for some of them on Saturdays so they wouldn't have to go home for lunch. The building was filled with a hodgepodge of donations from other churches, including windows from St. Columba, lumber from St. Elizabeth and an organ from St. Paul in Pleasure Ridge Park.

Lucy Gish, president of the parish's first altar society, said St. Matthias' strength centered on parishioners willing to volunteer their time to improve the parish. "It was such a close-knit parish," Gish said, "Everybody did what they could for each other. The first Mass was held in the one-story church on Easter Sunday April 15, 1952. A banner commemorating the service hangs in the vestibule of the current church.

Because of the congregation's growth, work soon began on a school and gymnasium. The buildings opened in September 1953. The gymnasium was eventually converted into the current church in 1963. Berneta Arnold, who moved away Annual pow-wow By MISSY BAXTER Special Writer Tepees and tribal dancers will fill the Bullitt County Fairgrounds this weekend as the Red Crow Indian Council holds its Fifth Annual Intertribal Pow-Wow. Members of the Cherokee, Black-feet, Navajo, Sioux, Chickasaw and other Indian nations will gather for what Ida Creighton, president of the Red Crow Indian Council, calls "a celebration of Native American culture" Friday through Sunday.

Beginning at 9 a.m. daily, the event will feature storytelling, lectures about American Indian culture, traditional dancing, a drum competition and various demonstrations. Booths will feature ethnic food and authentic crafts such as Indian pottery and beaded jewelry. The event kicks off Native American Heritage Week, Oct. 7-14, which the Kentucky General Assembly established several years ago as a way to recognize the importance of Indian culture.

The pow-wow, co-sponsored by the Bullitt County Tourist Commission and funded in part by a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council, has grown into the second-largest tourist draw in set for Bullitt County fairgrounds Louisville Jaycees Oktoberfest "Louisville's Original Oktoberfest" October 6-8, 1995 7718 Columbine Drive; 8 p.m., Incarnation, 2229 Lower Hunters Trace. Oct. 24 6 p.m., St. Basil, 3107 Wayside Drive; 8 p.m., St. Denis, 4209 Cane Run Road.

Oct. 25 6 p.m., St. Aloysius, 1129 Payne St. Oct. 26 3 p.m., St.

Vincent de Paul, Shelby and Oak streets; 6 p.m., St. George, 1410 Dixie Highway; 8 p.m., St. Ann, 1511 Algonquin Parkway. Oct. 27 6 p.m., St.

Columba, 3514 W. Market St. Oct. 28 10 a.m., St. Luke, 4211 Jim Hawkins Drive; 1 p.m., St.

Matthias, 2200 Dixie Highway; 4 p.m., St. Philip Neri, 230 Woodbine St. Bullitt County. Organizers of the pow-wow are hoping to break last year's attendance record. "Last year about 8,000 people attended it," said Bullitt County Tourism Director Elaine Wilson.

"It keeps growing every year and has become one of the big draws for our county." "We're outgrowing the fairgrounds," said Creighton, a former Brooks resident who founded the non-profit Red Crow Indian Council about eight years ago to promote American Indian culture in schools throughout the state. "Maybe the Creator will provide us with a larger place for next year's pow-wow." On Friday, more than 3,000 students from Bullitt, Oldham, Jefferson and other counties are scheduled to attend the pow-wow. The students and others who attend will be able to hear such speakers as Richard Crow, a Cherokee elder from North Carolina who once was the Cherokee nation's ambassador to France. Every day at noon, the pow-wow's dance and drum competition will begin with the grand entry as American Indians from tribes' throughout the nation arrive in full traditional dress. "The kids always love that part," Creighton said.

Butchertown 1400 Block of East Washington Street Story Ave. Presents German Festival October Heritage 6 7, 1995 Games and Souvenirs 4:00 German Mass Tours of restored Gothic-style Church German exhibits and activities Silo Microbrewery Parking Lot 630 Barret Avenue Hours: Friday 4-Midnight Saturday noon-Midnight Sunday 1-9 p.m. Admission: $4.00 adults (Free admission Friday 4-7 p.m.) Children under 12 free with an adult Patricipting Restaurants: Savori Catering Papa John's Red Hot Blue Tillett-Roberts German Catering Kingley's Catering Co-sponsored by: WQMF Radio Coca Cola Proceeds benefit Louisville Jaycees Charities Inc. Friday, 5 PM Midnight Saturday, Noon Midnight $3.00 Admission (12 Under FREE) Sat. FREE Featuring "Musikverien Harmonie Daxweiler" (16 piece "Oktoberfest" style band direct from Germany) AUTHENTIC German Food Menu "How To Find Health And Keep It" "Jungfest" for kids (secured area for kids) "Markt" street with traditional picnic booths crafts $1500 Capital Prize Also Featuring Cynthia Afyce Neely, C.S.B., of Chicago When: 3 p.m., Sunday, October 8 Where: Brownsboro Inn, 4805 Brownsboro Road (just west of 1-264) Sponsor: Second Church of Christ, Scientist 4125 Shelbyville Rd.

Everyone is welcome to this free lecture "Sharon Lee The Bavarians" (Well known local talent) Come join us beneath the twin steeples! We welcome you to Butchertown Home of the Authentic GERMAN FESTIVALS!.