Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Bay City. Interior

The form of the church was characteristic of the historicized ecclesiastical style prevalent at the time. It was a manifestation of an ideological and artistic attitude, which deliberately referred to the past, emphasizing the antiquity of the place and of the community which founded the church. In the case of Bay City the church hallmarked one of the oldest Polish parishes in the USA. Gothic Revival was also associated with cathedrals in Europe, including the cathedrals in Polish lands, which emigrants had left because of poverty, but also because of the persecution by the Prussian, Russian or Austrian authorities.