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<< previous • Polish Legacy Main Page • next >> Holy Rosary Church, 3919 Gatzke Road, Cedar. Photographer unknown. Early 1990s. Working together, the community of greater Cedar built its center - Holy Rosary Parish. Ground was broken in September 1921, and families hauled foundation fieldstones in wagons during the summers and autumns of 1921-22. Local stonemasons John Mikowski, Al Piotrowski, and John Wirt worked summer and fall and many parishioners pitched in mixing the mortar and doing carpentry. Walter Novak was one man who helped build the church. He explains: "Well, that was all donated work. The priest announced how many guys come Monday, how many guys come Tuesday, all that you know. It was all donated labor; the brickwork and all that. The bricklayers were hired, but outside of that we had to go and carry the brick for the bricklayers. Carried the mud, mixed the mud." Some parishioners brought their teams of horses to help dig the large hole for the basement and to distribute stones as needed. Indeed, one of Mr. Novak's specific jobs was to dig the foundation of the church. He recalls: "I drove a team of horses for three different days. I know I was there three days digging. That road there on the south side of the church, that's all built up with that dirt we scraped from that basement. If your name was called up [by the priest], you had to go donate that day." Inside the church, inscribed in Polish in the arch over the altar, are the words Krolowo Rozanca SW. Modl Sie Za Nami, translated as "Queen of the Most Holy of Rosary, Pray for Us." --Lucia Novak << previous • Polish Legacy Main Page • next >> Museum | Projects | News | Store | About | Making History | Links | Home

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