Helping Hand

Logansport’s former St. Vincent de Paul Church has stood as a beacon for the community’s residents since it was built in 1860. Designed in the Gothic Revival style, the church grew from the city’s first Catholic parish that was organized in 1838 by a French priest, Father John Claude Francois. St. Vincent later served thousands of Irish laborers and their families who emigrated to the area to dig the Wabash and Erie Canal in the mid-1800s. Today, the site’s nonprofit owner is planning repairs to the former house of worship, hoping to return it to service for the neighborhood.

An Indiana Landmarks grant is helping Emmaus Mission Center plan masonry repairs for the former St. Vincent de Paul Church. PHOTO: Debra Parcell

A community hub for over a century, the historic church in the city’s Riverside Historic District was closed by the diocese in 1986 due to financial pressures, and several Catholic churches were consolidated into All Saints Catholic Church. The former St. Vincent de Paul Church remained vacant for a decade and was in danger of collapse and demolition. In 1994, the Emmaus Mission Center—a nonprofit dedicated to helping those in need of food, clothing, and housing—acquired the church and the adjacent rectory and school.

The center worked first to rehab the rectory and the school to host a soup kitchen, counseling space, and temporary housing, but the church building presented greater preservation challenges due to its age and many years of neglect. The roof was in danger of failing, the original stained-glass windows required repair, and the interior of the building was in need of stabilization. In 2017, many of the original stained-glass windows were removed from the church and placed on display at All Saints Catholic Church. Emmaus Mission Center replaced the failing roof in the early 2020s to try to halt water seeping into the building.

Historic postcard of St. Vincent de Paul Church

Despite its deteriorated condition, the Gothic Revival structure retains many original features including the steep rooflines, pointed arch windows, and soaring vaulted interior spaces. Indiana Landmarks has worked with Emmaus Mission Center for several years to provide guidance and technical support as they plan next steps for the building, which the center plans to eventually repurpose as a shelter for the unhoused. In May 2026, we provided an Endangered Places grant to the center to assess exterior masonry conditions, a needed step to inform exterior stabilization before work can continue inside. Learn more about the Emmaus Mission Center’s work at www.logan-emmaus.org.