Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Bill Kirchner
Taken: September 19, 2010
Caption: St. Peter's Catholic Church
Additional Description: Church website homepage:
Father Badilla established a mission church in Round Valley and would walk the 60 miles from St. Johns every week to conduct mass. When local prominent resident J.J. Baca acquired his first automobile he would often tactfully schedule his business trips to St. Johns to coincide with Father Badilla’s trips to Round Valley in order to give him a lift. The first Catholic Church was built on the present site of the Baptist Church. When J.J. Baca’s entertainment hall burned down in 1927 he donated the land to the church and St. Peter’s Catholic Church, made of adobe bricks and designed by Jenano Acosta, was built on the site. It had a choir loft, stained glass windows and an organ. The first services were held here in 1928. In 1949 a gas leak exploded and blew out the adobe side walls, but the front façade remained intact. The church was remodeled and upgraded in 2003.

This new church building was completed and dedicated in July 2003. See the "Also Link" for photos of the previous church buildings.
Submitted: September 29, 2010, by Bill Kirchner of Tucson, Arizona.
Database Locator Identification Number: p129953
File Size: 2.943 Megabytes

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