{"nrhp_refnum":"79002842","name":"St. Bernard Catholic Church and Rectory","other_names":["Burkettsville Catholic Church and Rectory"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burketsville","county":"Mercer County","state":"OH","lat":40.35226083500004,"lon":-84.64589926999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-07-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Romanesque Revival Catholic church (1924) and its adjoining 1906 brick rectory on Main Street in Burkettsville, Mercer County, Ohio, near the Mercer-Darke county line.","why_significant":"The inventory describes the church as the parish's third church, built in buff brick with twin towers and a cruciform plan, and notes that its priest also led a novitiate for boys entering the priesthood. The rectory is recorded as the parish's first, retaining most original features with only minor changes. Both are part of a thematic group of Latin/cross-tipped churches.","narrative":"In Burkettsville, Ohio, near the Mercer-Darke county line, a Romanesque Revival church and its rectory serve the St. Bernard parish, organized in 1874. The present church, built in 1924 of buff brick to designs by J.F. Sheblessy of Cincinnati, is the parish's third. It has a cruciform plan, a tile gable roof, and twin towers with hexagonal domes above open belfries. Three doorways symbolize the Trinity, and a stained glass window sits above the central door. Earlier worship took place in a frame church enlarged in 1904; plans for a new building stalled during the war until 1922. The priest here also directed a novitiate for boys entering the priesthood. The two-story brick rectory of 1906, the parish's first, has a front gable with an elliptical window, a veranda on stone columns, and a fanlight doorway. It was first lit by acetylene gas and has changed only slightly since.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Church: J.F. Sheblessy of Cincinnati, architect; Medland Bros. of Logansport, Indiana, builder. Rectory: not stated.","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival (church); Vernacular (rectory)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Both buildings are in use: the church as a church, the rectory as a priest house. The church exterior is in good condition with the interior remodeled; the rectory is good inside and out.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:11.983148-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/79002842.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002842/7b7cb3fbb7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002842/7b7cb3fbb7-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Bernard%27s_Church_in_Burkettsville,_front.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Bernard%27s_Church_in_Burkettsville,_front.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71985873","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124307094"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/mercer-county/st-bernard-catholic-church-and-rectory-79002842/"}