St. Ambrose Church (St. Nazianz, Wisconsin)

In 1854 an entire Catholic parish in a small German village uprooted under the leadership of its priest, Father Ambrose Oschwald, and departed for America.

Arriving in Wisconsin, a scouting party headed out through the forest with ox carts to locate the land and begin the settlement.

Enrollment at the seminary declined in the 1960s, and in 1968, the Salvatorians reorganized it as John F. Kennedy Preparatory High School, named after the first Catholic U.S. president.

The property went through a succession of owners and schemes over the next several decades, and the religious complex was neglected, suffering considerable vandalism.

Originally, Oschwald's body was entombed beneath the altar of St. Ambrose Chapel in the space that now comprises the back of the main St. Ambrose Church (the chapel was the original worship place of the Loretto Monastery portion of the building, a lower stucco part which was constructed in the 1860s).