Churches: Saint Stephen Martyr Catholic Church

From our terrace, we can see and hear a church, Saint Stephen Martyr Catholic Church.  The church is easily spotted because of its bell tower. 

Saint Stephen Martyr Catholic Church, Pennsylvania Ave. and 25th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

The church dates from the 1860's and was dedicated by Georgetown University's president to the Roman Catholic protomartyr St. Stephen.  The church is located in an area that was historically a working class neighborhood with nearby factories.  The dedication to St. Stephen was appropriate "for it suggested an obligation to be firm in one’s faith and to be moved by a spirit of charity and forgiveness."  You might remember reading about St. Stephen during Year 2. Stephen was the first martyr, stoned to death in Jerusalem around 34 A.D., following a religious dispute.  During his life, he distributed alms to widows.  

The original church was completed in 1869 and was replaced with the current church, completed in 1961.    

The original church, about 1919

The modern bell tower is intentionally very tall.  According to the church's website: "In order that the church not be lost among the large buildings surrounding it, a seventy-foot white, pre-cast concrete bell tower, surmounted by a twenty-foot gold cross, was situated so as to dominate the corner of 25th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue."

Since the church is near our apartment, we have visited it a few times, especially during the winter when it opened its doors to offer a warm place to rest, including to homeless neighbors.

The wood and bronze main doors are especially interesting with a biblical story.

A notable attendee was John F. Kennedy who visited the church during his Presidency.

JFK departing after mass at Saint Stephen Martyr Catholic Church (possibly October 28, 1962)

Thanks for visiting St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church with us.  If you visit us is D.C., you can hear the lovely church bells throughout the daytime.  

P.S. The bell tower reminds us of a similar bell tower in Florence, also built in the early 1960's and made from reinforced concrete.  You can see it here.

Apparently, the similarity is more than a coincidence.  According to The Washington Post architectural critic Benjamin Forgey: "It's a minor piece, to be sure, taking a little of this and that from here and there—the engineering expressionism of Pier Luigi Nervi and others, the 'brutalism' of late Le Corbusier, the simple asymmetries of 1950s commercial modernism."

Nervi designed the bell tower in Florence.   Who knew?