Holy Guardian Angels Church and Cemetery Historic District

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

Holy Guardian Angels Church and Cemetery Historic District is a historic district in Roselle, Carroll County, consisting of one church and its cemetery. The church was built in 1904 in the Gothic Revival style, also classified as Late Victorian/Gothic.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criterion C, with local significance in architecture, and the nomination also cites criteria considerations A and D. Its period of significance is 1904, the year the church was built.

Physical character

The church has red brick walls on a limestone foundation trimmed in limestone, with stained glass, gold leaf, marble, and oak inside. A gabled roof and steeple top the building; inside, a vaulted ceiling rises thirty-seven feet above the floor, with a catwalk above it reached by a narrow winding stairway. The nave includes a confessional, a St. Joseph Altar, a Sacred Heart of Jesus image above the right door, and a cross and crown of thorns. A gravel lane and iron fence surround the cemetery. The interior was repainted in 1929, and the sanctuary was carpeted in 1966.

Historical context

The area had the highest concentration of German residents in Iowa, per Carroll County's 1980 census, and the parish cemetery holds grave markers dating from 1863 to 2004. An older school building was razed in 1977, and in 1999 a marble marker with two angels was placed in front of the church, a date the nomination lists as significant.