Oklahoma City

Red House to Red Church

Fr. Luis Benages resigned as prior of Oklahoma City in June 1940, and Vincent Martinez was appointed the new prior by his right hand man, Fr. Eugene who was then our Provincial. John Emmanuel was subprior and prefect of students during this time.

As war raged in Europe in 1940, we had to evacuate our six students from Rome in June. Among the new arrivals in Oklahoma were Louis Scagnelli, Raphael Belauskas, Alexander Leoni, and Dennis Kelso. This picture shows Brother Louis (in the middle) and Alexander (gesturing to Brother Andrew as he took their picture) standing by the gas pump in our back yard. I can’t identify the Brother strolling in back nor the first of the three gathered by the pump. Andrew labeled this picture “scenes of philosophy,” although both Scagnelli and Leoni were theologians at the time, having taken their philosophy on Mt. Carmel in Palestine. Andrew would have been the philosopher. With the coming home of our Fraters from Rome, and newly professed novices from San Antonio, we are packed like "sardines crammed in a can," wrote the monastery goblin.

When Fr. John Emmanuel [left] came to Oklahoma City to be prefect of students in 1939, he immediately began making improvements to the college. He removed a wall and made the chapel a third larger with the help of students Stephen Till, Gerard Vara, Damien Hayes, Joseph Yohe and Cyril McDonnell. Stephen, Cyril, Damien & Robert Butler were in their last year of philosophy at this time. Father John also replaced the vestments as the ones being used were best described as “shabby.” He was trying to change things around to make enough room for the newly professed coming from the novitiate in San Antonio before the fall term opened in ‘39. In September, the prior of San Antonio, Edward Soler, brought Bernard Wood “a jolly Irishman from Washington DC” & Raymond Donoho [right] “the Texas Ranger” from the novitiate to Oklahoma City’s house of studies. Francis Bacon followed in October. Instead of studying philosophy as the other newly professed were to do, Frances went directly into theology, for he had obtained a Ph.D. degree from Fordham before entering. Father Cornelius OCD, provincial of Holland, [left] took refuge in Oklahoma City during the Nazi occupation. Fr. Evarist Foix was sent to OKC to teach dogmatic theology. So John Emmanuel had work to do to expand the college facilities for his expanding class of seminarians.

The new prior of the house was looking for a more permanent solution to the overcrowding of our Oklahoma City seminary. In the winter of ’40 he began negotiations for the purchase of the old governor’s mansion in Ponca City to serve as a house of philosophy. It would be prepared during summer vacation of ’41, but not open for classes until the fall of that year. In the meantime, our philosophy and theology students had to make do with sparse accomodations in Oklahoma City.

The noteworthy feature added to Oklahoma City’s grounds during the summer of 1940 is recorded by the goblin: “The Fraters just completed a cement walk leading from the college to the famous glorieta." Frater Andrew Palmero [left] arrived in Oklahoma City in June. He had just been professed. Andrew brought his camera from the novitiate in San Antonio to Oklahoma City and began to take pictures of the place. This picture shows that newly completed cement walk leading to the gazebo. I have yet to figure out why the gazebo was called “the famous glorietta.” But there it stands to the right of the students. In back is the Manuel home. Manuel’s son Edward Diaz was enrolled in our 8^th grade at Little Flower school at the time; he had been just elected “president” of our altar boys. To the left is what we called “the Red House”, a two story building being used as our college of philosophy.

The red house was nestled among trees in the back yard of our monastery. Towards the end of the ‘40s, it’s usefulness to us was diminished. But it was a good solidly built house, and our church’s secretary’s sister Pauline had just married Raoul Baltierra. They were looking for a place to live that was close to the church. At the chapter of 1948, Alexander Leoni was named prior of Oklahoma City. Alexander decided to tear down the old two-story parish hall to create more parking space for our new school, and get rid of the red house. To this end, the Red house was jacked up and moved across 11^th Street where Raoul and Brother Victor tore down an existing structure to make way for the Red House, which was then painted white. So it was that the red house was converted into the Baltierra residence which still stands today facing our back yard.

1980s

Now we jump ahead to 1984, when Jesús Sancho became pastor of Little Flower parish. He served as pastor for almost ten years until Fr. Jenaro de la Cruz came. Jesús saw the need for expanding the parish grounds. When Manuel Diaz died, we got his home and converted it into a clinic for the poor who could not afford regular health care. Jesús managed to acquire enough land bordering the back of our property that the story goes if we had left him there another ten years he would have acquired the entire block. A Sister’s convent was set up in the house next to our school. Soon after Father Jenaro [right] arrived in 1993, we had so many people crammed into our church for Sunday Masses and feast days, the archbishop began to promote the idea of building a larger church. Thanks to the acquisition of the Diaz house, we now had room for such an undertaking.

2000s

In May 2006, preliminary construction work was begun. Two brick structures were demolished: our three car garage, and a workshop out back which Jesús had acquired. Once these two buildings were taken out, bulldozers came in, piled the top soil on the east near the monastery, and scrapped down to the red earth beneath. The word “Oklahoma” means “red earth.” The new church, known as Centro Guadalupano --Guadalupe Center, now stands where the Red House once stood. Fr. Jenaro has taken us from the red house to the red church. Inside it’s blue, as a fitting Marian color for an edifice dedicated to the mother of God under her title Our Lady of Guadalupe. The parish gathered there on Sunday afternoon 12-Aug-07 at 3:00pm to celebrate the dedication of this new worhsip space. Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran blessed the church using a large green branch of hyssop to sprinkle everything with holy water. A reception folllowed with mariachi and music bands.

So that’s the story. This piece of land off Walker Avenue and 11^th street in Oklahoma City once housed a red house used to train Carmelite students for the priesthood. Now it is the site of a large red church that welcomes Hispanics to worship.