Renovated Old Cathedral Museum tells the story of the first church in St. Louis in new ways
On a sunny June morning at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (Old Cathedral), Ollie Wunderlich was ready to talk about history.
He greeted a family of five from Illinois as they entered the recently renovated museum at the church. As a volunteer docent, Ollie had welcomed visitors from several states and countries, including Mexico, Uruguay and Australia, in the three weeks since the museum had opened, he said.
The archdiocesan Office of Records and Archives team spent more than two years overhauling the museum to tell the story of the church and its place in history in new ways. Established in the 1940s, the museum’s scope was previously very broad, displaying artifacts from the Old Cathedral building itself, items related to the history of Catholicism in St. Louis and some related to general “Catholic Americana,” said Eric Fair, director of archives. There was not much interpretation to help visitors understand the significance of the artifacts, he added.
“If you have a case full of artifacts, someone comes up to it. They don’t know the context, they don’t know how that was used in the past, why it was important, what it meant to those people in that particular time and space,” Fair said. “So that’s what we’re doing: We’re taking those artifacts and giving them context, telling that story.”
The archives team narrowed down the museum’s collection, curating items and documents that relate directly to the Old Cathedral. They then wrote new interpretation for the entire museum to give it “a renewed storyline,” archivist Rena Schergen said. “Everything in the exhibits revolve around the church itself, but then it places it in a larger context of the archdiocese, the history of the western U.S. and the context of the city of St. Louis as well.”
The museum walks visitors through the the early Catholic Church in St. Louis, predating the Old Cathedral, and the subsequent construction of two log structures and a brick church before the current cathedral was completed in 1834. “The Changing Landscape” exhibit shows how the area around the Old Cathedral has changed, from busy city blocks, to the demolition of buildings making way for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, to the building of the Gateway Arch and the surrounding National Park.
It’s important to recognize the impact that the Old Cathedral had on the history of not just St. Louis but also the greater American West, Fair said. The Old Cathedral was the only Catholic church in St. Louis for decades, and it served as a hub of faith for explorers setting out west through the Louisiana Purchase.
“It was important for us to tell the story of the entirety of the Catholic peoples here in St. Louis,” Fair said. “So, we have interpretation and exhibits on the Native American experience, the immigrant experience and the experience of peoples of color and enslaved persons here.”
They worked with a long list of other institutions, including other dioceses, religious orders, the Missouri Historical Society and the Library of Congress to add more records and fill in gaps. A researcher in Italy who happens to live in Bishop Joseph Rosati’s birthplace took photos of the town and even tracked down Bishop Rosati’s baptismal certificate for them. “It’s been a very far-reaching project, and there’s been so many people who have helped us,” Schergen said.
Visitors can also view an 18-minute documentary about the Old Cathedral in the 20th century, including the shift for the Old Cathedral as the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (the “New Cathedral”) was built and dedicated. The museum also details the $9.5 million renovation of the Old Cathedral in 2014-15. While that renovation included some small updates and maintenance in the museum, this is the first extensive revisioning of the museum since it was created in the 1940s.
Another priority of the museum renovation was making it accessible. The museum spans two floors previously connected only by a stairwell. With funding from the Annual Catholic Appeal, a lift was installed last summer. The renovation also included reconfigured lighting and some new artifact cases.
Because of the Old Cathedral’s location in Downtown St. Louis, the museum is in a prime position to reach visitors who may not know a lot about the Catholic Church and its importance in St. Louis, Fair said.
“The Old Cathedral, even though it’s not the cathedral of the Catholic Church in St. Louis, it’s still the front door of Catholicism and the Catholic people as you travel to St. Louis,” Fair said. “You may have somebody that’s doing the tourist thing downtown, seeing a Cardinals game, checking out the St. Louis Arch — they walk by there, they see the museum’s open, they walk in and they gain a whole new understanding and appreciation of the history of St. Louis.”
The museum renovation was largely funded by a bequest left to the Old Cathedral for that specific purpose, said Father Nicholas Smith, rector of the Old Cathedral.
Father Smith hopes the new museum will serve as an educational and evangelizing tool for tourists and the faithful of the archdiocese alike. “It’s important for those that are visiting in town to see the important role the Catholic Church played in the city of St. Louis, but it’s also nice for people in the diocese to remember that this is where it all began, and here’s the story,” he said.
