This unassuming Mid-Century Modern landmark hides in plain sight in Madison, a suburban neighborhood in northeast Nashville. The St. Joseph Catholic Church and School opened at 1225 Gallatin Pike in 1953. Six years later, in 1959, the parish hired Belli & Belli, one of the top architecture firms in Chicago, to expand and renovate the classical-style facility with a “modernistic” sanctuary, bapistry, and classrooms. When it opened in 1961, a local reporter described the church as “unusual” but “Not Bizarre.”
Established as a parish in 1952 adjacent to Madison’s historic Spring Hill Cemetery, St. Joseph’s Church opened on June 12, 1953, in a modest “temporary” building with a Colonial Revival-style red brick school added in 1957. Rev. George William Rohling (1912-2010) had purchased the land for $30,000 in 1950. Operated by the Dominican Sisters of Nashville’s St. Cecilia Convent, the St. Joseph parish soon served 160 children and outgrew its 1957 educational facility.
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
Founded by the Roman Catholic Church in 1860, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia opened an academy in 1862 specializing in music and the fine arts. During the Reconstruction Era, the sisters expanded their teaching to schools throughout Tennessee. In 1915, St. Cecilia established a link with the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Soon, the St. Cecilia congregation established Aquinas College, Overbrook Academy, and St. Cecilia Academy at the historic St. Cecilia Motherhouse (NRHP, 1976). They went on the establish schools in Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio, and Virginia.
Rev. George William Ruhling
A native of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Rev. George William Ruhling (1912-2010) graduated from Father Ryan High School in Nashville. He attended St. Bernard College in Alabama as well as St. Gregory College and Mt. St. Mary’s of the West, both in Cincinnati. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1939 at Sacred Heart Church (NRHP, 1984) in Lawrenceburg.
Rev. Ruhling taught at Father Ryan and was a pastor at St. John Vianney in Gallatin, St. Frances Cabrini in Lebanon, and St. Henry in Nashville. During his leadership at these parishes, he oversaw construction of a school and rectory in Gallatin, a new church in Lebanon, and the entire campus at St. Joseph’s in Madison. In 1945, he founded Camp Marymount in Fairview. Rev. Ruhling was a charter member of the National Council on Christians and Jews and served on several educational boards of directors. In 1967, Pope Paul VI honored him with the title of Reverend Monsignor.
St. Joseph Church Expansion
In 1959, Rev. Rohling of St. Joseph’s hired Belli & Belli, one of the top architectural firms in Chicago, to expand and renovate the facility with a contemporary sanctuary and classrooms. The original 1953 church was converted into classrooms and a nursery. Ground was broken for the expansion on December 20, 1959, and cornerstone laid on December 4, 1960. The $325,000 facility was dedicated on March 12, 1961. Local newspapers published several articles about the new modernist church.
Belli & Belli
The Belli & Belli architectural firm was founded in 1946 in Chicago by Edo Jesualdo Belli (1918-2003), an American modernist architect and son of Italian immigrants. In the late 1930s, Belli apprenticed with Holsman & Holsman while attending night classes at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) where he graduated in 1939. At the time, the the IIT College of Architecture was directed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), the renowned German-American architect who became head of college in 1938. Belli also worked for Perkins & Will; L.E. Janik; and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Joined by his brother Anthony J. Belli (1924-2007), early in his career Edo Belli formed a lasting relationship with Chicago Archbishop Samuel Stritch (1887-1958), later elevated to Cardinal, and won commissions for many churches and schools in the growing archdiocese. A native of Nashville who attended the Church of the Assumption in Germantown, Archbishop Stritch supported Belli’s early commitment to innovative engineering and a decidedly modernist architectural style.
Edo Belli was most inspired by the modernist architecture of Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950), a Finnish-American architect who led the American Bauhaus movement at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Graduates included Charles and Ray Eames and Eliel’s son, Eero Saarinen. Eliel Saarinen designed America’s first International-style churches, including the First Christian Church (1942) in Columbus, Indiana, and the Christ Church Lutheran (1949) in Minneapolis – which inspired architects such as Edo Belli, who had been introduced to Eliel Saarinen while working with Perkins & Wills and during visits to Cranbrook.
Edo Belli designed modernist Roman Catholic ecclesiastical landmarks around the U.S. and the world, including the Blue Cloud Abbey (1949) in South Dakota; Marmion Abbey (1950) in Illinois; St. Patrick’s High School (1952-1956) in Chicago; Moreau Seminary at Notre Dame (1959); Immaculate Conception Church (1961) in Pittsburgh; and St. Joseph’s Hospital (1963) in Chicago. In the South, he designed projects Alabama (1), Florida (2), Louisiana (3), and Texas (2). Several of his designs include circular components, which became one of his trademarks. Many of these modernist-style landmarks are just recently receiving significant attention from architectural historians and historic preservationists.
In April 1959, the Tennessean announced that St. Joseph’s Catholic parish would build a “modernistic church with one of the most unusual designs in the city – a triangular, multi-colored glass front” rising 44-feet and 68-feet wide at the base. A separate baptistry connected to the church with a vestibule. The 12-foot diameter circular baptistry was built entirely of hand-cut Crab Orchard stone from East Tennessee, and capped with a stainless steel shaft in the shape of a cross and containing carillons. The sanctuary seated 750-800 people and 50-100 in the choir.
“We think the building will be inspirational and beautiful,” stated Rev. Rohling in April 1959. “It will be unusual but will not be bizarre.” In August 1961, Belli & Belli told a Tennessean reporter that these “church buildings should preach a sermon in themselves, clearly expressing that this is a House of God.” The reporter summarized the building: “in its simplicity is the essence of worship.”
The St. Joseph’s Catholic Church exhibited laminated oak ceiling beams shaped into arches; pine ceiling boards; an altar and 27-foot tall cross carved from Italian marble; a spiraling white reredos made of steel, cement plaster, and glazed ceramic tiles and representing the sheet in which Christ was wrapped; oak pews with bronze communion rails; two small shrines; and an exterior marble statue of St. Joseph, carpenter and patron saint of the parish. The interior exhibited materials imported from Italy, including white and gold ceramic tiles as well as black and gold marble.
Over the years, St. Joseph’s has expanded with additions and renovations completed from 1979-1998. The original multi-colored “Tropical” plastic-glass of the sanctuary’s main facade was replaced in the 1980s with a partially enclosed brick and sandstone wall that supported a Delaware pipe organ. The glass exhibited “liturgical” blues, golds, and greens with a “luminous sparkle” of clear light at the top. Otherwise, the modernist architecture of the 1959 design by Belli & Belli has been well maintained. A tornado damaged the rear of facility on December 11, 2021, but it was soon repaired.
My research indicates that St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and School in Madison is the only Belli & Belli commission in Tennessee. Their 1959 church and school complex is a remarkable example of modernist Roman Catholic ecclesiastical architecture in the South.
Bibliography
Belli & Belli. “Clients,” undated, https://www.belli-belli.com/clients.html.
Blum, Betty J. “Interview with Edo J. Belli (1918-2003).” Chicago Architects Oral History Project, Art Institute of Chicago, 1995, https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/caohp/id/451/.
Hieronumus, Clara. “Old and New at St. Joseph’s.” Tennessean, August 6, 1961:61, 66.
Isaacs, Deanna. “Next on the hit list: Edo Belli’s Cuneo Hospital complex.” Chicago Reader, July 22, 2013.
Kates, Joan Giangrasse. “Edo J. Belli, 85, Obituary.” Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2003.
Koyl, George S., ed. American Architects Directory. New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1962.
Nashville Banner. “St. Joseph’s Crucifix Imported.” Nashville Banner, April 28, 1961:13.
Peterson, Katie. “St. Joseph School closes early for Christmas following storm damage.” Tennessee Register, December 12, 2021, https://tennesseeregister.com/st-joseph-school-closes-early-for-christmas-following-storm-damage/.
Tennessean. “St. Joseph’s Plans New Church.” Tennessean, April 22, 1959:3.
Tennessean. “How Madison St. Joseph’s Will Look.” Tennessean, April 25, 1959:5.
Tennessean. “Rev. Msgr. George William Rohling Obituary,” Tennessean, December 24, 2010.
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