The Neighborhood
Over
the years the church and its neighborhood have seen many
changes. Sheldon Avenue in 1875 was a fashionable residential
district of stately Victorian homes.
In the boom years of lumbering, the city
grew around it with ever-expanding arcs of commerce and
neighborhoods. Increasing numbers of immigrants and workers
were one of the reasons why Leo XIII created the new diocese
in 1882. |
|
After the disastrous fire of 1901, two worlds
wars and a Great Depression changed American society, and the
neighborhood changed accordingly. Postwar prosperity gave way
to urban decay as people moved out of the central city to the
suburbs. Inner city churches fell
on hard times.
Today downtown renewal is again changing the
area now known as Heartside. With business leaders and downtown
workers, urban poor and recent immigrants, artists and Heritage
Hill dwellers, the neighborhood could hardly be more diverse.
Saint Andrew is not your typical neighborhood parish, and never
was.
