Historian Wants to Preserve Church’s Cornerstone

By Chris Baumann
The Tube City Almanac
August 02, 2020
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

(Submitted photos courtesy Nicholas Boros)

Historian Nicholas Boros came from Cleveland to Western Pennsylvania this summer to digitize some old Hungarian Catholic newspapers written by the Rev. Kalman Kovats, the founder of the church formerly known as St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church.

Located on Beacon Avenue in McKeesport, St. Stephen’s is scheduled to be demolished.

Boros decided on a whim to visit the church to take some pictures and has begun a movement to preserve its cornerstone.

“I’ve always had a great love of history,” said Boros. “I studied comparative religion in university. That really helped develop my passion for historical research on immigrant religious communities.”

Boros’s passion for Hungarian Catholic history stems back to his grandparents on both sides of his family, as they are all from Hungary.

Boros said St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Cleveland and St. Stephen’s in McKeesport were two of the most important churches during the migration of Hungarian Catholics to the United States in the early 1900s.

Preserving the cornerstone of St. Stephen’s in McKeesport would be the perfect way to commemorate the church’s impact on Hungarian history in America, Boros said.

“At the national level we are considering who we choose to memorialize, and in what way,” Boros said. “St. Stephen’s was a major driver of Hungarian Catholicism in the United States. It was a mother church to many other Hungarian Catholic churches in Western Pennsylvania.”

According to biographical information posted online, Kovats was born in 1863 in Hungary, where he studied theology, was ordained and became a professor of religion, as well as the assistant editor of a newspaper.

In 1899, as a growing number of Hungarians migrated to the McKeesport area to work in the steel mills, Kovats’ bishop sent him to America to establish a Hungarian-language Catholic church. St. Stephen’s was built in 1900-1901 and was furnished with stained glass windows depicting Hungarian saints.

In 1911, Kovats established a Hungarian cemetery in North Versailles Twp., and in 1912, Kovats invited nuns to come from Hungary to help establish a Catholic school at St. Stephen’s. Those sisters were members of the Divine Redeemer order, which maintains a convent in Elizabeth Twp. to this day.

Kovats also established a weekly Hungarian-language newspaper in McKeesport, Magyarok Csillagát, or “Hungarian Star,” which lasted in various incarnations until 1927.

Just like in Pittsburgh, there remains a large Hungarian Catholic community in Cleveland, Boros said.

Kovats’ incredible efforts to help Hungarian-Americans, and the sacrifices that Hungarians in McKeesport made to establish St. Stephen’s church, make it “necessary” to preserve the cornerstone, Boros said.

“One of the ideas that I have is to make the cornerstone a shrine for Hungarian Catholics in the United States,” he said. “Not only because it has historical significance in its own right, but to have it on display for Hungarian Catholics because of the story behind it and its significance in the development of Hungarian Catholicism in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.”

Boros has faced several obstacles in his efforts to preserve the cornerstone of St. Stephen’s.

“Probably naively I thought I could just call city hall and have something arranged, but I heard nothing from them,” said Boros. “I also contacted the owner of the building but did not hear from him either.

“I finally had some luck when I spoke with the McKeesport Preservation Society,” Boros said. “They had useful advice and were helpful in reaching out to the demolition company, but still could not get much information.”

In an interview, Jim Miller, who has owned the church for seven years, said he’s interested in preserving the cornerstone and keeping it in McKeesport — provided it survives the demolition.

“It depends how they bring it down,” he said.

One problem is that no one is sure what the cornerstone is made of. Boros said it’s unclear whether the stone is a solid block, or is a mix of natural materials and concrete.

Depending on how the stone is constructed, it could weigh several hundred pounds, he said.

“We still don’t know, and it will have to be determined during the demolition,” Miller said.

Miller is open to preserving the cornerstone on the Beacon Street site.

“I would like to keep the stone on the property somewhere as a memento to the church, to show people where it was and commemorate their memories of what was there,” Miller said. “The neighbors are happy the church is going down but they like the memory. At least there would be a cornerstone for them to look at after the church comes down.”

Boros said McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center has also expressed interest in keeping the cornerstone for their collection but has not spoken to anyone about the preservation effort.

There is no guarantee that the cornerstone will survive the demolition, and with the demolition already past its scheduled date, the cornerstone’s preservation remains in jeopardy, Boros said.

“I’m surprised more can’t be done prior,” he said. “It would be nice to formally hear from city hall to ensure they are equally as invested in preserving this piece of history as we are.”

Boros can be reached at ngboros@yahoo.com.

Christopher Baumann is a freelance writer from Gibsonia. He may be reached at baumannc90@gmail.com.

Originally published August 02, 2020.

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