St. Rose Church & the 1937 Flood

Today is the 71st Anniversary of ‘Black Sunday’ and the 1937 Flood. Flood waters actually crested at 79.9 feet on Jan. 26, 1937, the highest ever in Cincinnati. But on Sunday, January 24th a number of gas tanks exploded, sparking fires along the flooded Ohio River and Mill Creek. The Enquirer ran a headline ''Valley is Inferno as Gasoline Burns''.

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church is located at 2501 Eastern Avenue, err, Riverside Drive. The German congregation organized on January 15, 1867, carved out of Saint Philomena (Pearl Street) and St. Francis de Sales parishes. The church was completed and dedicated on May 21, 1869. Individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Cincinnati still in active use as a Catholic church. Those older include only Old St. Mary’s (1842), St. Peter-in-Chains (1845), St. Francis Sereph (1859), Immaculate Conception (1860), and St. Xavier (1861). St. Peter’s in Fairmont was built in 1844 but closed in 1868 before St. Rose was even built. The building still stands on Queen City Avenue as part of the Lick Run National Historic District but is no longer a Catholic church. And Old St. Paul’s was completed in 1850 but is now used by Verdin Bell as the Bell Event Center.

St. Rose’s relatively simple brick structure is Italian Romanesque Revival with round arched windows and stone trim. I am unsure of the building’s architect. The steeple is over 190 feet high and is clearly visible in the narrow valley. A small, Second Empire style home serves rectory, built ca. 1885, lies directly to the east of the church. The church was rebuilt after a fire on January 31, 1894, nearly destroyed it and the adjacent school. Only the walls remained.

The church has also survived many floods. A marker on the rear of the facility marks the height of every major flood on the Ohio River, including the 1937 Flood.

References:
Souvenir Album of American Cities: Catholic Churches of Cincinnati and Hamilton County edition, 1896.

Historic photos from Library’s Cincinnati Memory Project.