In the mid-nineteenth century, Pittsburgh was the heart of the nation’s iron and steel industry, drawing over 114,000 Polish, Austrian, and Hungarian immigrants to the city to work in its mills. Saint Adalbert’s was the second polish catholic church in Pittsburgh and the first of its kind in the South Side. Though the official date of organization was May of 1883, the intention for the parish was declared by the Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1880. Construction of the original Romanesque structure was completed between 1889 and 1890. Today, it stands as the last operating church of what were once seven thriving churches that made up the Prince of Peace Parish. 

Saint Adalbert’s Auditorium and Social Hall was completed in the fall of 1958 and dedicated to the Parish’s Diamond Jubilee. As a result of crowdfunding, the construction of the Auditorium was funded largely by small donations from parishioners. It became the center of parish and school activities for the Polish Roman Catholic community hosting countless sports events, plays, assemblies, dances, and socials. Now a relic of the Cold War, the lower level of the Auditorium was designed as a Nuclear Fallout Shelter and served as a space for classrooms while the building was in operation. The Auditorium entrance was enclosed with mosaic marble walls and re-named the Monsignor Rokosz Center and re-dedicated 18 years after its completion in the fall of 1976.

Read more in Next Pittsburgh about this conversion.