St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Maria Stein, Ohio)
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Maria Stein Catholic Church and Rectory
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Front and side of the church
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| Location | St. John's Rd. and State Route 119 |
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| Nearest city | Maria Stein, Ohio |
| Coordinates | 40°24′29″N 84°28′22″W / 40.40806°N 84.47278°WCoordinates: 40°24′29″N 84°28′22″W / 40.40806°N 84.47278°W |
| Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1889 |
| Architect |
J.A. Decurtins Adolphus Druiding |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
| MPS | Cross-Tipped Churches of Ohio TR |
| NRHP reference # | 79002828 |
| Added to NRHP | July 26, 1979 |
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, United States. Located in the unincorporated community of Maria Stein, it is the home of an active congregation and has been recognized as a historic site because of its well-preserved late nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival architecture.
The community of St. Johns was established in 1833. Its name was selected because all of its early male settlers bore the name of John. When the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railway expanded through Mercer County some years later, its surveyors chose a path through the small community of Maria Stein, to the west of St. Johns. As these two communities were separated by only 0.5 miles (0.80 km), business interests migrated to the vicinity of the railroad, and the two communities eventually merged under the name of Maria Stein.
Large numbers of Catholics from northern Europe settled in southern Mercer County and surrounding regions in the early nineteenth century because of the activities of the Society of the Precious Blood in the region. The center of the society's activities was the Maria Stein Convent, located less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north of St. Johns. From this convent was derived the name of the community.
St. John the Baptist Parish was founded in St. Johns in 1837 by priests of the Society from the village of Minster to the east; at that time, it was dedicated to John the Baptist. A small log church was erected to house the congregation, but the number of parishioners soon grew to the point that it was inadequate to house the congregation. Accordingly, a brick church was built to replace the log structure. As the membership continued to grow, multiple additions were built onto the original structure. By the 1880s, the parish had decided to replace the old brick church entirely with a yet larger building.
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