Author: FFP Ai Bot

St. Wendelin’s Catholic School and Church, Wood Street, postcard, about 1912

FOSTORIA — Few institutions in Fostoria go back as far as St. Wendelin. The Catholic parish traces its roots to a Mass in a log cabin in 1844, a decade before Rome and Risdon joined to become Fostoria, and for 146 years its school educated generations of local children.

In this installment of our local history series we trace the parish and its schools on Wood and North streets and on North Countyline Street. Sources include the parish’s own published history, the Diocese of Toledo, the Fostoria Area Historical Society’s archive of local history columns, Library of Congress fire insurance maps and local news reports. Where a detail rests only on local memory, we say so.

Quick timeline

Year	What happened
1844	The first known Mass in the area is celebrated in a log cabin on W. Tiffin Street near Main.
1847	Charles W. Foster donates land at North and Wood streets for a church.
1849-1851	The first church, a frame building, is built.
1873	The first school class meets, with about 90 students.
1879-1882	A larger brick church is built; its cornerstone is laid in 1879 and it is dedicated in 1882.
1886-1887	A new school building is begun; the Sisters of Notre Dame arrive in 1887.
1902-1905	A new church facade is added and the current rectory is built.
1909-1910	A new school building opens on Wood Street; the parish has its first high school graduate.
1930-1931	The new high school on North Countyline Street is built and dedicated.
1992-1993	The current church is built.
2017	St. Wendelin High School closes June 30.
2018-2019	The 1909 school building comes down; the school and the ministry of the Sisters end in 2019.

A log cabin Mass and a gift of land

According to the parish history, the first known Mass in what is now Fostoria was celebrated in 1844 in a log cabin on West Tiffin Street near Main. Three years later, Charles W. Foster, the merchant for whom the city is named, donated land for a church at the corner of North and Wood streets. A frame church was begun in 1849 and finished in 1851.

The parish took the name St. Wendelin because some of its first families came from the area of St. Wendel in Germany, named for the seventh-century hermit and patron of herdsmen and country people.

Part of Foster’s acre was first used as a small cemetery. When the Lake Erie & Western Railroad laid its tracks through the area in 1858, the three people buried there were moved to a new cemetery, according to a 1981 history column republished by the Fostoria Area Historical Society. To this day the parish grounds and the old LE&W depot sit within a block of each other.

A brick church and a growing school

A rectory followed in 1869, and the first school class met in 1873 with about 90 students. As the town boomed, the parish laid the cornerstone for a larger church at North and Wood in 1879 and dedicated it in 1882. Construction on a new school building began in 1886, and in 1887 the School Sisters of Notre Dame began a ministry in Fostoria that would last until June 2019.

The 1896 Sanborn fire insurance map, held by the Library of Congress, shows the church, the school and the LE&W depots grouped together near North Street.

Sanborn fire insurance map detail, St. Wendelin church and school, 1896

In 1902 the church received a new facade with twin towers, and the current rectory was built in 1905. The parish’s longest-serving pastor, Rev. Ambrose A. Weber, led St. Wendelin for 37 years and died Aug. 22, 1941, at age 88, according to the historical society.

The 1909 school and the high school

By 1909 the parish needed a still larger school. The new brick building on Wood Street, shown in the postcards in this story, opened that year, and in 1910 St. Wendelin had its first high school graduate. The high school began as a two-year commercial course and became a four-year school by 1920.

St. Wendelin’s School postcard, 1910s

In 1926 the parish bought land on North Countyline Street for a separate high school. Its cornerstone was laid Sept. 28, 1930, and the building was dedicated May 18, 1931. Eighteen rooms were added in 1961. A 1981 history column counted 613 students in the elementary school and 271 in the high school.

Closings and a new church

The parish built its current church in 1992-93. The schools faced harder times. In April 2017 the Diocese of Toledo announced that St. Wendelin High School would close June 30, 2017, citing finances and enrollment, while the parish kept a K-8 school open. The 1909 school building on Wood Street stood until December 2018, and the Sisters of Notre Dame ended their ministry in June 2019, when the school closed after 146 years.

Then and now

Wood and North streets: St. Wendelin Parish is still there, with its office at 323 N. Wood St. and the newer church built in 1992-93. According to local accounts, the land where the old school buildings stood on the east side of Wood Street is now a parking area for the church across the street.

North Countyline Street: the former high school building was demolished in 2021, according to local news reports, and a Casey’s store opened on the site, at 531 N. Countyline St., in 2025.

Are you a St. Wendelin graduate? Share a memory or a class year with us.

More from FFP: History: Looking Back at the Memories of Fostoria Field School and Fostoria: Time for a Train Drop on New Year’s Eve?.

Photo note: Photographs and images published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States. Historical images in this article are shared for educational and historical purposes.

Sources

• St. Wendelin Parish, About St. Wendelin / Brief History: https://stwendelin.org/aboutwendelin
• Diocese of Toledo, St. Wendelin High School to close June 30 (April 24, 2017): https://www.toledodiocese.org/diocesan-news/st-wendelin-high-school-to-close-june-30
• Fostoria Area Historical Society, St. Wendelin Continues Growing (1981): https://www.fostoriamuseum.org/st-wendelin-continues-growing/
• The Courier, St. Wendelin high school to be demolished: https://thecourier.com/news/324873/st-wendelin-high-school-to-be-demolished/
• The Review Times, Fostoria Casey’s set for grand opening: https://reviewtimes.com/news/580617/fostoria-caseys-set-for-grand-opening/
• Casey’s, 531 N. County Line St., Fostoria: https://www.caseys.com/general-store/oh-fostoria/531-n-county-line-st/4501
• Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Fostoria, 1896: https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06698_003/
• Wikimedia Commons, St Wendelin’s Catholic School and Church, Fostoria, Ohio (DPLA postcard, public domain): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Wendelin%27s_Catholic_School_%26_Church,_Fostoria,_Ohio_-_DPLA_-_4109f636618f58d0829ee2e9287b4c0f_(page_1).jpg