St. Rose at 2571 Nichols Boulevard, Longview, WA 98632 US - History of St. Rose de Viterbo

Until 1910, with the establishment of St. Mary's parish in Kelso, the Catholic population of the lower Cowlitz area was served by visiting priests, arriving by horseback, or by sternwheelers on the Cowlitz and/or Columbia Rivers; but mostly by priests just passing through. Masses were celebrated in homes and later, occasionally, in an abandoned Methodist Church. In 1923, the Long Bell Lumber Company established the new City of Longview and its mill on a flat plain across the river from Kelso. By 1927, the new city, and its Catholic population had grown sufficiently for Bishop O'Dea of Seattle to establish a permanent parish for the growing Longview area. The four mission churches of Castle Rock, Kalama, Woodland, and Cathlamet were attached to it. The new parish, dedicated to St. Rose of Viterbo, was under the tutelage of the Franciscan priests from St. Francis Mission on the Cowlitz Prairie near Toledo. By 1928, under Fr. Leonard Bose, OFM, a new church and rectory were constructed on property at the corner of 26th Avenue and Nichols Blvd. The new parish was now serving a Catholic population of 185 families. The Franciscans would continue to serve St. Rose through the Depression years and early World War II, when in 1941, Fr. Patrick Mulligan was appointed pastor by Bishop Shaughnessy. Fr. Mulligan served the people of St. Rose for 33 years, remaining in residence until his death. In 1943, the missions of Woodland, Kalama, and Castle Rock were detached from St. Rose. In that same year the Sisters of St. Joseph of Neward purchased St. John's Hospital; the Pastor of St. Rose assumed the Hospital chaplaincy until 1948 when it was taken over by the Jesuit Order. In 1950, St. Rose completed the new ten-room parish school, with seven sisters of St. Joseph of Newark opening its doors to 260 children, kindergarten through 6th grade. The decade of the 1940s had seen St. Rose's population grow to 700 families. With such steady growth, the wood framed church constructed in 1928 had become inadequate. The new church and rectory were completed in 1959. By 1981, faced with the liturgical changes from the second Vatican Council and the changing needs of the growing parish, parishioners established two priorities for the parish's future. First, to bring the church building to the norms of Vatican II and to the needs of the worshipping community; and second, to provide a parish center to better fulfill the social and administrative needs of the parish. The newly renovated church project was completed in 1984 under the pastorate of Fr. Richard Basso. Then, in 1994, under the pastorate of Fr. Hans Olson, the parish office moved into its newly constructed Parish Center. In 1984, St. Catherine's Mission in Cathlamet was again detached from St. Rose to be served by the pastor of St. Mary's in Castle Rock. In 1995, with the realignment of the parishes, the mission was reattached to St. Rose. By the fall of 1998, the parish school of St. Rose was educating 243 students in preschool through 8th grade. St. Rose now serves 1225 families

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