The planned razing next year of St. Anthony Catholic Church at Nebraska and Junction avenues is more than just the removal of another vacant building to people like Jack Sparagowski.

For Mr. Sparagowski, 71, president of the Polish American Community of Toledo, it's another sad reminder that a once thriving Polish community in Toledo is largely dead.

“It is hard to put it into words because there is nothing like that neighborhood today,” Mr. Sparagowski said. “Folks who didn't live there can't even imagine a neighborhood like that.”

Toledo was long home to two Polish communities. Residents still think of the area centered around Lagrange Street and St. Hedwig Catholic Church as the city's Polish corner. The other, now mostly forgotten, was in the community near St. Anthony. 

St. Anthony was one of several Catholic churches in that Polish stronghold neighborhood that was filled every Sunday with immigrants. It has sat vacant for a decade and now shows signs of decay. The church, with a towering landmark steeple that dominates views along Nebraska for many blocks in either direction, has not been used for liturgical services since 2005, when then-Bishop Leonard Blair announced it would be among 17 churches in the Diocese of Toledo to close that year.

The diocese opened it to meet the influx of Polish families in the neighborhood of the St. Hedwig Parish. A parish school was also operated on the property between 1901 and 1972.

BLADE BRIEFING: Nicki Gorny on church attendance

RELATED CONTENT: Vacant St. Anthony Church set for demolition in 2018 ■ St. John XXIII thrives amid time of decline

In 2012, St. Hedwig Church, which was the Polish family anchor in North Toledo’s Polish Village for the previous 121 years, closed except for special events such as weddings. The Adalbert and Hedwig parishes had already been merged into a single parish two years earlier.

The Rev. Greg Peatee, pastor of St. Hyacinth at 719 Evesham Ave., said many of the aging Polish parishioners who once attended Mass at St. Anthony and probably lived in the old Polish neighborhood called Kuschwantz have since moved away.

Father Peatee acknowledged lower church attendance, people moving to the suburbs, and a priest shortage are some of the reasons for Catholic church closings in many of the nation’s urban centers.

"With the shrinking number of clergy, there is not enough of us," Father Peatee said.

His parish has acquired and displays the namesake statues from the now-closed St. Anthony — St. Stanislaus, and St. Jude — as a way to welcome those parishioners who lost their churches.

“We did that as a welcoming gesture — and we assumed the boundaries of the parishes — so when the people came here they at least would recognize something," Father Peatee said. "It was a very sad day for many people because no one wants to see their parish close."

Lagrinka was the name of the Polish neighborhood on Lagrange Street. Kuschwantz — which means “cow’s tail” was home to Polish immigrants who started arriving there in the late 1870s. The area was bounded roughly by Brown Avenue and Hawley, Campbell, and Dorr streets, said the Rev. Richard Philiposki, who was once pastor of St. Adalbert and St. Hedwig parishes in North Toledo.

The two neighborhoods seemed similar to outsiders, but the people living in each competed.

“There was always competition between the two areas,” said Father Philiposki, the author of a book called Toledo's Polonia. “There was a feeling among the men that they shouldn't be dating girls from the other [Polish] part of town but despite that, there was a lot of mixing between the two neighborhoods.”

According to Father Philiposki's book, published in 2009, Polish immigrants started arriving in Toledo between 1870 and 1920 from “partitioned Poland,” which was Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Many were from rural impoverished villages.

“Many of Toledo's Polish immigrants came from the Prussian or German Poland,” Father Philiposki wrote. “Most came from the Great Poland or 'Wielkopolska' region, [mid-central Poland].”

Tim Paluszak, Polish American Community of Toledo treasurer, said St. Anthony was the first school in the neighborhood and was filled with the children of Polish immigrants who didn't speak English.

"I am 75 and my dad went to that school and they had close to 1,400 students," Mr. Paluszak said.

"From St. Anthony, the next parish was St. Stanislaus, that was a much smaller parish and school, and the next school was Nativity," he said. "There was also St. Teresa and St. Jude. ... Those were the main parishes of that neighborhood, and that was a big Polish community — probably 75 percent polish. And those are gone now."

Many of the Polish families moved west toward Sylvania, Mr. Paluszak said, part of the population shift that affected so many parishes in the city.

At St. Hyacinth, however, Polish roots remain strong. Parishioners there still sing a Polish hymn after communion.

Father Peatee admitted he tries to sing along but doesn't understand Polish.

The parishioners still operate a Polish picnic during the summer, which requires them to make about 4,000 homemade pierogi from scratch.

"One of the sad things is when we lose these anchors in the neighbors, the neighborhood changes, but we can't keep these open with so few people showing up," Father Peatee said. "We have 290 families on the books, and it would be a great problem if they all showed up to Mass."

While areas like the two once Polish neighborhoods have declined, the Catholic Church has responded to growth in other areas like Perrysburg, where it opened Saint John XXIII Catholic Church at 24250 North Dixie Highway.

"Our diocese did a study of parish viability and in 2005, as a result, merged and closed some parishes, but they decided they needed to open another in Perrysburg," said the Rev. Herb Weber, pastor of the church. "It is growing, and they wanted to get ahead of the curve."

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com, 419-724-6171, or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published December 22, 2017, 5:00 p.m.