There are a number of buildings which make up our Parish Campus.  The campus fills the city block which is bordered by the 100 Blocks of North Church & Montgomery Streets, along with Emmett and West Main Streets.

The campus is comprised of our church, the convent, the Parish Center/Rectory and our School Buildings which consist of the 'new' building (built in the early 1960's) and the 'old' building (built in the late 1880's).

The next several photos are that of the church.

This picture was taken after all of the destruction and construction.  All of the homes, but one, were removed from the block across the street from St. Bernard's to make room for the new Walgreen's store and Church Street was re-engineered to add additional lanes from just south of the Wal-Mart Super Center and ending at the corner of North Church and Main Streets. 

This mallard drake appears to be doing a bit of sight-seeing, perched high above most other buildings in the area.  Perhaps he is, perhaps not.

He might just be scoping out a nesting spot for his soon to be family. 

On the north side of the church building there is an indentation in the wall where a mallard hen took up residence and hatched her brood.  The spot is ideal, protecting the hen and her chicks from the weather and the landscaping keeps her hidden from those passing by.

This is a picture of the main body of the church during a worship service.  Here the congregation prepares for Holy Communion.

During the 1980's a major renovation of the church took place.  Talk about a house divided; needless to say, even though the outcome of the renovation is absolutely beautiful, many of the older parishioners didn't want the changes.

The lights, windows, and the two murals in the front of the church are are pretty much the only things not replaced, structurally in the main body of the facility.

Prior to the renovation, up in the very front of the church stood the original altar.  It took up most of the wall space underneath the the three windows which depict the Holy Family.  The top points of that altar almost reached the bottom of said windows.  Two of the 'spires' were retained and placed above the baptismal font in the left front and the right front over the tabernacle.

This is a picture of the interior again, this time from the front of the church looking east.

Do take notice of the beautiful choir loft and pipe organ.  In the 1970's work was being done on the steeple. During this re-work, the steeple caught on fire.  For a period of time it looked as if the steeple would be a complete loss. 

While attempting to put out the fire, the organ sustained quite a bit of damage due to water.  The steeple sits almost directly above the organ chamber.

If there was a certain pre-existing need for work on the organ's ranks, windchest, action and console, the results of the fire placed the 'frosting on the cake'.

The decision was made to move forward with restoring the organ to its former 'beauty'.  That took not only a great deal of time, but also capital.

Once the work was completed, the choirmaster at the time, Loraine Endres, invited her good friend, Sister Theophane Hytrek, SSSF, to put on an organ recital at the church.   Theophane was an accomplished composer/performer and was the first woman to receive the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy.  Sister Theophane demonstrated exactly what the organ was designed to accomplish.  Those in attendance at that recital will never forget its magnificence.

The south corner of the campus is the location of the Parish Center - Rectory.  In the foreground you can see just a portion of the beautiful landscaping on the grounds.  Recently the parish was awarded the highly coveted Watertown Arts Council Landscaping Award.  Other pictures in this album will better display the landscaping.

The Parish Center-Rectory was originally the home of  Dr. A.F. Soliday.  Doc Soliday didn't have a lot of love for his neighbors on the block and would never in his life believe that one day his home would become part of the St. Bernard's campus.

The home was originally purchased for use as a convent.  In its heyday, the convent was home to at least seven nuns from the Congregation of St. Agnes.  Six of the nuns were teachers/administrators for the school and the seventh was the housekeeper.  Eventually the sisters made the decision to leave St. Bernard's and the building remained as a convent, but only for a few, at best, of sisters from other orders that worked for the parish in one capacity or another. 

It didn't make sense for the convent to remain as such so the decision was made to move the Rectory-Parish Center to the convent and the convent to the old Rectory-Parish Center.  Today the third floor of the home serves as an archive for all of the many, many records of the parish; the second floor serves as a private residence for the parish pastor and the first floor is used as offices for the Pastor, the parish secretary, the Business Administrator.  The first floor also houses a conference room.

Moving south along the street, is located the convent (former rectory).

This is the original rectory for the parish and at one time an addition was made to the residence which more or less doubled its size. 

For many years, the rectory served as home for up to three priests.

This is a photo of more of the landscaping that graces the Church Street side of the campus. 

The landscaping is maintained by a group of dedicated parishioners who take turns, generally a week at a time, to keep the grounds pruned, watered and beautiful.

No matter how hot and humid it can be while the work is being performed, this group of folks always seem to have a smile to share along with some kind words.

The Steeple is a Watertown landmark and many citizens of Watertown have come to rely on it to tell the time.  Each of the four sides of the steeple contain a clock and the bells continue to ring on the hour, quarter, half and three quarter hour.

At one point in time, and it may still be the same today, the steeple was the tallest point in Watertown.

The next three photos are of our school facility.  The school is made up of two buildings, the older of the two was built in the late 1800's and has been renovated numerous times through-out the years.  Prior to the new school building, which was built in the early  1960's the old building was home to eight grades, a cafeteria and a stage area.  Later the older building housed the fourth and fifth grades, along with an activity room on the second floor, the sixth and seventh grades along with the library were on the third floor.  The lower level (basement) housed the bathrooms along with rooms for the cub scouts and girl scouts. 

The new building was home to first, second, third and eighth grades.  The eighth grade room was in the new building and was attached by a doorway to the office area.  The eighth grade teacher was also the principal of the school.  The new building also contained a state of the art kitchen (at the time) along with a gymnasium which tripled as the lunchroom and parish hall for large gatherings.

Today the new building is home to the PreSchool, the 4yr old kindergarten, the kindergarten and the first grade.  The office and teacher's lounge, along with the kitchen/gym are also in the newer building. 

The old building is home to the Extended Day Care, a Work Room, Grades 2,3,4 &5, an art room, the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, the library and the computer lab.

The only major renovation that has been done to the new building is the remodeling of the office area.  The following two pictures show what the new area now looks like.

The buildings of St. Bernard's have long been put to paper, either in a sketch pad, a pen drawing or oil painting by any number of artisians.  The next three photos are of various drawings of our buildings.

Thanks to Google Earth, here is a better then a bird's eye view of St. Bernard's Campus along with several of the neighboring blocks.

While not physically a part of our 'campus' our cemetery is located south of the campus +/- a mile off Montgomery Street.  Our cemetery has always been well taken care of throughout the years by the varous gentlemen who have served as sextons.