St. Sebastian's Catholic Church (Sebastian, Ohio)
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St. Sebastian Catholic Church and Rectory
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Front and eastern side of the church
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| Location | Sebastian Rd. and County Road 716-A, Sebastian, Ohio |
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| Coordinates | 40°26′39″N 84°31′0″W / 40.44417°N 84.51667°WCoordinates: 40°26′39″N 84°31′0″W / 40.44417°N 84.51667°W |
| Area | 0 acres (0 ha) |
| Built | 1904 |
| Architect | Andrew De Curtins |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| MPS | Cross-Tipped Churches of Ohio TR |
| NRHP reference # | 79002830 |
| Added to NRHP | July 26, 1979 |
St. Sebastian's Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Marion Township, Mercer County, Ohio, United States. Located in the unincorporated community of Sebastian, it is the home of an active congregation and has been declared a historic site because of its well-preserved early twentieth-century Gothic Revival architecture.
Dedicated to third-century martyr Saint Sebastian, the parish was established in 1852 from territory that had been part of St. Rose and St. John the Baptist parishes. By the end of the following year, its members constructed a church building that would serve the parish for twenty-five years; a frame structure, it was built under the direction of an African American man named Coratus. This structure served the parish until a replacement brick church was completed in October 1879; a rectangle measuring 45 feet (14 m) by 85 feet (26 m), it cost $4,000 to build and was considered by some to be the finest church in Mercer County.Anton DeCurtins was instrumental in this building's history: he designed it, added its pipe organ, and expanded it in 1894.
Some of the parish's members lived in the village of Chickasaw, nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) to the southeast. During the 1890s, movements grew among the Chickasaw members for the creation of a separate parish; they built a parish hall in 1894 and succeeded in having it declared a chapel of ease in the following year. Unrest between the Catholics of Chickasaw and the parish's other members culminated with the destruction of the church: on January 12, 1903, soon after many of the Chickasaw parishioners separated from St. Sebastian's, the church and its contents were burned to the ground. In the aftermath of the fire, an investigation was conducted under the supervision of Archbishop Elder. Although the fire was deemed suspicious, a separate parish was created in Chickasaw as a result of the fire, while St. Sebastian parish began the construction of a new church in 1904; it remains standing today.
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