St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church (Louisville, Kentucky)

[1] These sisters established the first parish school at St. Martin of Tours in 1858 and shortly thereafter founded the Ursuline Academy for girls one block away.

[3] The political turmoil of mid-nineteenth-century America played an important part in the early history of the parish, and that of the greater immigrant Catholic population of Louisville.

On August 6, 1855, the members of the Know-Nothing party, whipped into hysteria by the flame-fanning of the editor of the Louisville Journal,[4] aimed their revolt at the Cathedral of the Assumption on 5th Street and at St. Martin of Tours Church.

Suspecting the German Catholics at St. Martin's of armed, anti-government organizing, the Know-Nothings intended to burn both churches to the ground.

[5] Through the intervention of the bishop, Martin John Spalding, who invited the Know-Nothing mayor of Louisville to inspect the premises of both buildings, the Catholic congregations were exonerated.

[7] The church building underwent significant changes in the 1890s, including a new vaulted ceiling, new stained-glass windows from the Royal Bavarian Art Glass Institute, and a new stone façade complete with a bronze statue of St. Martin.

In 1894, St. Martin of Tours contracted for a new 3-manual and pedal pipe organ with Farrand & Votey and that instrument has remained largely-unchanged since its installation.

George W. Schuhmann (1865–1931) and opened in 1982 to aid homeless persons and others in need with clothing, emergency food, and social service referrals.