89 years ago

The Jasper County Public Library has an insurance map of Rensselaer from May 1921 that shows where the buildings were at that time. Looking back at the churches in the area of the old Carnegie Library shows that a lot has changed in 89 years. For example, here is what the St. Augustine's lot looked like. It may seem that not much has changed, but the only building still there is the residence on the bottom right of the block. The old school is gone, and the current school is located where the old St. Augustine Hall was. (Was this the original church building?) The current church building was built in 1939, so the church on the map has disappeared. It is also interesting that there were residences on what is now the Susan Lot, which the school uses as a playground. There was already and undertaker at the site where Jackson's Funeral Home is located.

The Presbyterian Church was built in 1896, but much of its neighborhood is different. The buildings to the right of it are all long gone, as is the house to its left. Parking lots occupy much of this area.

The Trinity United Methodist Church was built in 1888 and remodeled in 1911. Everything to its right is now gone. I recall some of those buildings because I visited them when I was a census enumerator.

Finally, the First Christian Church seems about the same, but the current building was not built until 1938, so the what is shown on the map was a previous structure. The biggest deletion on this map would be the public school, which stood where Hal Grey Park is now.

By the way, St. Augustine's has a new website that is still under construction. One of the addresses is saintaugustineparish.org.