Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Bay City

The St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Bay City is one of the ten oldest Polish parishes in the United States (sixth oldest, founded in the same year as St. Adalbert Parish in Chicago and St. Hyacinth Parish in Toledo), and was organized by Father Kazimierz Rochowski. The first church, designed by the prominent local architect Leverett Anson Pratt and dedicated on 13 December 1874, was made of wood and could accommodate two hundred people.
The new church (constructed in the years 1889-1892) was designed by Pratt & Koeppe, the leading architectural company in Bay City in 1880-1910, and built by the companies run by Ben Burbrigde and Andrew Thompson. It was an imposing Gothic Revival structure, designed for 1500 people, with skeleton frame construction (steel, yellow brick, concrete, stone) and architectural details made from oak inside and brick outside.