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 dwelers, the neighborhood could hardly be more diverse. Saint Andrew is not your typical neighborhood parish, and never was.