jan 1, 1883 - St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

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St. Thomas the Apostle Parish was established in Armourdale in 1883 in a storefront near 3rd and Kansas Avenue. The first pastor, Rev. Thomas C. Moore, S.T.D., acquired the current property from the Kaw Valley Town Site company, which established the City of Armourdale, in 1884. A basement church built of native limestone was constructed in 1890, and served the congregation until the 1903 Kansas River Flood, which washed the roof into nearby Shawnee Park. The damage to the basement church was not repaired until 1910, which required the removal of Mass and services to the third floor of the adjacent St. Thomas School, which had been designed by W.W. Rose and built in 1902. In 1916, the parish began raising funds for a new sanctuary, the cornerstore of which was laid by Bishop John Ward in May 1917. The new building was built at a cost of about $30,000. The church towers were completed in 1928, once the debt from the cost of several expansions and relocations of church facilities was retired. The parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel had its beginnings in the basement of St. Thomas. The practice of segregating Mexican families began to erode following the 1951 Flood, and by the late 1960s, Mexican-Americans constituted a large proportion of the active congregation, requiring weekly Spanish-language masses. In 1976, responding to concerns from parishioners that it failed to provide adequate outreach to the Chicano community, the Archdiocese established the Spanish-Speaking Office in the former church rectory at 736 Shawnee Avenue. In 1979, the Spanish Speaking Office relocated to the Franklin Center in Argentine, and later became El Centro, Inc., which continues to provide outreach and services to Hispanic and immigrant families throughout Kansas City and Johnson County, Kansas. Source: https://khri.kansasgis.org/

(see video history of El Centro, Inc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O-I3k1-FCg&list=PLs4XX8qiVc0HOdj89e-g1-FTL5I_HLcTk&index=3&t=0s

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