Mother of God Church History

(1900-1988) by Thomas J. Noel

The handy little church at Speer and Logan was built around 1900 and housed various Protestant sects over the years. During the 1920s, it was acquired by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. This Mormon splinter sect, founded by the widow of Joseph Smith after a dispute as to who would succeed him, used the church until the 1940s when it moved to a larger building at 480 Marion Street.

When the Catholic population of Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood mushroomed during and after World War II, Archbishop Vehr paid $27,000 for the tiny church with its twin crenelated turrets fronting Speer Boulevard. To relieve crowding in neighboring parishes, Mother of God was created for the faithful living between Broadway and Downing Street, between East 1st and 8th avenues.

Upon discovering the basement pool dug for total immersion baptisms, Archbishop Vehr declared Mother of God “the only Catholic Church in Colorado with a swimming pool.” A $16,000 remodeling filled in the “swimming pool” and added two sacristies. Margie Setvin donated the grand stained glass window on Speer, which portrays the Joyous Mysteries surrounding the Mother of God.

The parish prospered during the pastorates of John Regan (1949-1954), Paul Reed (1954-1960) and John V. Anderson (1960-1969). Generous church members retired the parish debt by the mid-1950s and enabled the church to acquire the entire triangle of land bounded by Speer, Logan, and East 5th Avenue. Helen Bonfils, a parishioner then living at 707 Washington Street, donated air conditioning, a rectory, and a wedge-shaped addition on the west side of the church. A niche outside the addition was filled with a life-sized statue of the Mother of God, which keeps a vigil over passing Speer Boulevard motorists. Parishioner Marcella Tangney, who directed the choir for the parish’s dedication Mass on August 16, 1949, still leads the singers. Besides playing the organ for as many as seven Masses on a weekend, she sometimes sings solos. “Marcella is an outstanding example of how parishioners sustain a parish,” said Father Lawrence St. Peter, pastor since 1985.