Photograph of St. Louis' Catholic Church — Photograph by Nyttend, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

St. Louis Catholic Church and Rectory

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 5 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1908.

From the record

“Louis Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in North Star, Ohio, United States. Constructed in the early twentieth century, it is one of the newest churches in a heavily Catholic region of far western Ohio, but it has been recognized as a historic site because of its unique architecture.”
Wikipedia article St. Louis Catholic Church (North Star, Ohio), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 28 National Register listings published here for Darke County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. E of U.S. 127, North Star, 45362
When was it listed? 1979-07-26
Category. building
Also known as. Cross-Tipped Churches of Ohio TR
Township. Wabash township
National Register reference number. 79002835 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1908 to 1953

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 45 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering St. Louis Catholic Church and Rectory, surveyed 1953

Topographic sheet covering St. Louis Catholic Church and Rectory, surveyed 1908

The ground it stands on

2,927 words

The chapter on Wabash Township in The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880 names North Star. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

In 1870. a frame church was erected, the third in this place ; and this was duly consecrated by Rev. Wycke. During the spring of 1876, the erection of a meeting-house was contracted for by A. R. Catterell, at North Star. On its completion, it was dedicated by Rev. R. D. Oldfield. assisted by Rev. T. D. Howe. This was during the time when Rev. M. Omerod was on the Dawn Circuit. There is a Christian Church in what is called the Holsapple settlement, on the Wabash, north of the center of Section 12. about two and one-half miles from North Star. It is a frame, and was built in 1871.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

In the line of manufacture there are two tile factories, one operated by Gilbert & Trissell, formerly by Harvey Burns and Benjamin Gilbert, and the other by Ephraim Trissell and Alvin Jones. A saw-mill was erected at North Star in 1852, by John and David Trissell. To this mill, grist works were added in 1858 by Stephen J. Houston. The property is now owned by Andrew Alexander. Another mill stood a half-mile east of North Star. It was built b}* David Trissell and was burned down in 1878. The establishment of mail routes gave employment to Freeman Whittaker, who was the first to carry the mail in Wabash. In accord with the custom and necessity of the times, small cemeteries were laid out adjacent the churches ; there were three in the township, located respectively at Shook's Chapel, Holsapple's and at Perrysville.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Wabash Township - 2,927 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 103 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 103 specimens collected within 10 miles of St. Louis Catholic Church and Rectory between 1915 and 1964: 97 Animalia, 6 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Athearn, Herbert D., H. Price, H.L. Lewis and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Tilletia laevis J.G.Kühn	1919	not recorded	Versailles
Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1919	s.n.	Versailles
Ustilago tritici (Bjerk.) Rostr.	1919	H.L. Lewis	Versailles
Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	Ausonia, 1 mi E
Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausonia
Falco sparverius sparverius Linnaeus, 1758	1915	Householder, V.	Ansonia, 1 mi E
Geothlypis trichas (Linnaeus, 1766)	1915	Householder, V.	Ausonia, 1 mi. E
Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausoria
Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1915	Householder, V.	Ansonia, 1 mi E
Melospiza melodia melodia (A.Wilson, 1810)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E of Ansonia
Passerina cyanea (Linnaeus, 1766)	1915	Householder, V.	1 mi. E Ausouia
Pooecetes gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1915	Housholder	1 mi. E. Ausoria

All 103 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this property

5 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Star, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2001 and 2023: 5 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$7,000	Trees were reported down on a house due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	A tree was downed.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	Trees down on North Star Rd.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	$1,000	Trees down on Medford Rd.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	North Star	-	A trained spotter estimated the wind gust.

Every storm recorded in Darke County

Maps showing this location

5 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1908 USGS St. Henry quadrangle1:62500
1953 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000 - 5 printings
1956 USGS Muncie quadrangle1:250000
1961 USGS North Star quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1986 USGS Piqua quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings

From the nomination file

1,184 words on record

When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.

The whole case file for this property - 1,184 words, 6 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 79002835, 6 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
St. Nicholas Catholic Church and Rectory	4.2 miles	1979
St. Nicholas Catholic Church and Rectory	4.3 miles	1979
Holy Family Catholic Church	6.0 miles	1979
William English House	7.7 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79002835 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Darke County	All 28 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.