KELSO CHURCH NOMINATED TO BE ON NATIONAL LIST OF HISTORIC PLACES

KELSO, Mo. -- Its tall, majestic steeple can be seen from nearby Interstate 55, but St. Augustine Catholic Church in Kelso, Mo., may soon be recognized as a national treasure.

The Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation will nominate the church to be named to the National Register of Historic Places within a few weeks. The council approved an application recognizing the 112-year-old church's architecture during a meeting Friday in Jefferson City, Mo.

"The council unanimously determined conditional approval for the application," said Cathy Sala, office manager for the state historical preservation council. "It has some minor revisions that need to be made, and once those are made, we would be forwarding the application to the National Parks Service."

The National Parks Service must complete a review of the application within 45 days. Sala said most applications approved by the state council are named to the national register.

"One of the big responsibilities for the council is to review the nominations and determine if they are ready to be forwarded, and to assist in determining what revisions if any need to be made," Sala said. "Occasionally, people do submit their applications directly to the parks service, but 99.9 percent of them come to us because they have to be formatted a certain way."

Gothic architecture

St. Augustine's is the only example of Gothic Revival-style architecture in Scott County. The church was built in 1889, 11 years after the parish was established, and rests near the heart of the small, largely German Catholic community. The church was designed by Brother Adrian of the Order of St. Francis and underwent a restoration in 1979 to correct a number of alterations that had been made earlier.

"Pretty well everybody who lives here, either their parents or grandparents helped build it," said native resident Keith Westrich. "It's a beautiful church and very important to the community."

Doris Smith was born in Kelso and has researched the church's history as a member of the Scott County Historical Society. Its beauty lies not only in its architecture, but also in the ownership many of the town's families can take in the church, she said.

Take, for example, the piece of the church's old slate roof that Smith keeps in her living room. Similar shingles -- imprinted with a picture of the church during a renovation project two decades ago -- can be found "probably in just about every house in Kelso," Smith said.

And the church's importance to the community stretches even further. Family names that have been in the area as long as the church and parish can be found in the church cemetery, nearby St. Augustine School, which provides parochial education for children through the eighth grade, and even inside the church.

"My grandfather was about the third settler here, and his name's in a window," said Smith. "Back when it was built, people paid for the windows and things, so you'll see names in each window to tell you who helped build it and pay for it."

Smith's daughter, Geri Beussink, said the church would receive more attention from outside of the community if named to the national registry, but "it's still going to be the same church." She said her favorite areas inside the church are the well-defined choir loft and the pipe organ.

"I've always been partial to choir lofts just because churches don't have those anymore," Beussink said. "I don't know all the architectural terms. I just know what I like."