Filed Under Wibaux

St. Peter's Catholic Church

By The Montana National Register Sign Program
St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue [2]
St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue [2] 1. St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue 2. Wibaux, MT 3. William A. Babcock, Jr 4. June 1987 5. Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, MT 6. Southeast 7. 1 [verso] b&w print Source: Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana Creator: William A. Babcock, Jr Date: June 1987

Dismayed that his son’s adoptive home had no Catholic Church, Frenchman Achille Wibaux instructed Pierre to build one here. The rancher contributed $2,000 for the construction of this wood-frame, vernacular Gothic Revival structure. It was built in 1895 by R. R. Cummings and Eugene Blias of Glendive. The Wibaux congregation being at that time as a mission of Miles City, and Father Van der Broeck of Miles City superintended the church’s construction. In 1938, the church was enlarged and its exterior walls covered with scoria, a lava rock common to the badlands of the area. Father Leahy, pastor of the church beginning in 1931, conceived the idea of a scoria facing, and volunteers from the congregation went rock-picking in wagons and pickup trucks. Father Leahy recorded that “patient men did a beautiful job of laying the rock up to and on the steeple.” The building served as Wibaux’s Catholic Church until 1965, when a new church was built and this building was converted to a catechism school.

Images

St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue [2]
St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue [2] 1. St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue 2. Wibaux, MT 3. William A. Babcock, Jr 4. June 1987 5. Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, MT 6. Southeast 7. 1 [verso] b&w print Source: Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana Creator: William A. Babcock, Jr Date: June 1987
St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue
St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue 1. St. Peter's Catholic Church, West Orgain Avenue 2. Wibaux, MT 3. William A. Babcock, Jr 4. June 1987 5. Montana State Historic Preservation Office Helena MT 6. South 7. 2 [verso] b&w print Source: Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana Creator: William A. Babcock, Jr Date: June 1987
St. Peter's Catholic Church
St. Peter's Catholic Church St. Peter's Catholic Church, facing south on Orgain Street, front view of building. Source: MontanaPictures.net Creator: MontanaPictures.net Date: June 2007
St. Peter's Catholic Church
St. Peter's Catholic Church St. Peter's Catholic Church, facing north from back lawn, rear/side view of building. Source: MontanaPictures.net Creator: MontanaPictures.net Date: June 2007

Location

West Orgain Avenue, Wibaux, Montana | Private

Metadata

Related Resources

  1. Read about St. Peter's Catholic Church
  2. See photos of St. Peter's Catholic Church

Citation Info

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “St. Peter's Catholic Church,” Historic Montana, accessed April 20, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/2139.

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