ELLINWOOD — Following a Town Hall on Thursday at the Ellinwood District Hospital, Kansas Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan made a visit to the historic Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 5 miles north of town. Tax credits administered through the Kansas Historical Society will reimburse 27 percent of the cost of restoring the former church’s iconic steeple, said Ryan Robl from the Sts. Peter and Paul Heritage Association.
Robl and fellow Heritage Association member Dave Zink showed Jordan designs for the restoration. “We didn’t have the original blueprint,” Robl said. Instead, members found every available photo of the original steeple and provided the photos to an engineer.
The 99-foot steeple was blown over by the same tornado that leveled Greensburg in May of 2007. The church is being restored to its former grandeur. The steeple is in the process of being repaired, and the original three bells and the copper cross will be reinstalled.
The church is the home of the oldest parish in the Dodge City Diocese, established in 1875. The church was built in 1892 and declared a Catholic Shrine in 1986, although that status was later removed by the diocese.