Skip to main content

St. Patrick’s Imperiled

March 2023
1min read

As T. H. Watkins reported in his “A Heritage Preserved” column for the December, 1980, issue, the Photo Arts Club of Toledo, Ohio, and the Landmarks Committee of the Maumee Valley Historical Society teamed up in 1979 to launch a remarkable project: the compilation of a photographic record of the architectural and decorative features of the region’s historic buildings so that there would at least be something left should disaster or the wrecker’s ball strike them down. The first building chosen was Toledo’s St. Patrick’s church.

None too soon, as it turned out. On September 9, 1980, lightning struck the huge copper-covered wooden cross on top of St. Patrick’s steeple, burning through the metal and setting the cross ablaze. The flames soon ate away most of the steeple, although after several hours of effort firefighters saved both the roof and the interior of the church from major injury. Still, water damage did its work—a grim reminder that the Photo Arts Club and the Landmarks Committee had hit upon an idea whose time definitely had come.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "February/March 1981"

Authored by: Stiles Tuttle Colwill

The Smaller, Greener Baltimore of Francis Guy

Authored by: Ormonde De Kay

A Classic Riddle of the Sea From an Absorbing New Book

Authored by: Paul Lancaster

Chronicler of “The Men Who Do the Dying”

Authored by: Ernie Pyle

Captain Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas

Authored by: Wallace Stegner

An exploration into the exploration of America

Authored by: Marie St. John

A Childhood in the Florida Wilderness

Authored by: T. H. Watkins

MIAMI DECO

Authored by: John Lukacs

To Owen Wister, the unlikely inventor of the cowboy legend, the trail rider was a survivor from the Middle Ages – “the last cavalier,” savior of the Anglo-Saxon race

Authored by: Clark C. Spence

The Story of Some Forgotten Four-Footed Pioneers

Featured Articles

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

The world’s most prominent actress risked her career by standing up to one of Hollywood’s mega-studios, proving that behind the beauty was also a very savvy businesswoman. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.