Visitation Catholic Church

In August 1909, Fr. Thomas McDonald met with Kansas City’s Bishop John Hogan to discuss the need for a Catholic parish in the southern part of the city between McGee and State Line, an area of mostly farmland. Less than a month later, on September 5, the first Mass was held in Fr. McDonald’s family farm home. Yes, Old McDonald had a farm, and on that farm he had a church. With 12 families totaling 82 members, the new parish Visitation of the Blessed Mother was born. A temporary church was erected on the NE of Grand Avenue and Rock Spring Road on the McDonald farm. The crude structure was known as “The Catacombs.” In October 1909, it became Visitation’s first church.

The design and construction of this Spanish Colonial-Style church combined EverGreene’s multifaceted capabilities in the design of church decoration and three-dimensional architectural ornament, design and production of new Stations of the Cross, sculpture and fabrication of custom ornamental plaster (including a GRG reredos and lightweight-resin frames for the Stations), and free-hand decorative painting onsite.