BEDFORD– St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church was built in 1893 and dedicated in 1894. It is the highest point in Lawrence County. The building is an amalgam of stone, wood, and glass that, at the time, cost only $22,000 due to most of the material and labor being donated.
Father M. H. Bogemann, St. Vincent’s first full-time pastor, was a noted architect and builder. He had designed several buildings in Bloomington, including IU’s Kirkwood Hall, the old Monroe County Courthouse, and the Old St. Charles Church. By 1893, he had drawn plans for a beautiful new church in Bedford.
The project’s limestone, which is the majority of the structure, was quarried in Oolitic. The steeple originally stood 150 feet above the sidewalk but was later reduced to 107 feet due to a damaging lightning strike. The building measured 127×54 feet as originally built.
The stained glass windows, 35 in all, were spotted by Father Bogemann in 1893 at the Colombian Exposition in Chicago. Although the church was already being constructed, these Belgian-produced windows were destined to be featured in the building. There are 12 windows in the nave and 23 others in various places throughout the church.
