YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – By next year, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown plans to have in place a new, comprehensive archives center dedicated to preserving cultural and church records dating back centuries.

“This facility has been needed and has actually been discussed for generations,” said Joan Lawson, chancellor and archivist for the diocese. “It’s finally coming to fruition now.”

Church officers, guests and elected officials attended a groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning to celebrate the start of construction on the project. The All Saints Diocesan Archives Center will be a 4,900-square-foot repository built next to the former Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, 252 E. Wood St. 

The church, constructed in 1900, will be preserved and repurposed as a public programming and exhibit space, Lawson said. 

“It is absolutely church law that bishops maintain orderly control of church records,” Lawson said. “We have been in existence as a diocese since 1943, but our parishes have existed since 1817.”

Previously, parish records were scattered and stored in various locations – some in basements with poor conditions, Lawson said. The new site will have modern temperature and humidity controls, proper lighting controls and digital records to preserve materials collected from bishops and all the parishes within the diocese. At its height, the diocese included 116 parishes. The new facility will also include a research and public reading room. 

Other collections include donations from individuals, families and organizations – such as church artifacts or photographs that could be placed on display, Lawson added. “It’s a wide range that’s represented,” she said. 

Sacramental materials, such as baptismal records, for example, would stay with their home parish, Lawson said. However, the new archives center would maintain custody of records from those parishes that have closed.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown thanked the diocese for selecting a site near the central business district for the new project, but also “investing in that process to continue to make that connection for family and the community.”

The Youngstown Diocese encompasses six counties across northeastern Ohio: Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Stark, Portage and Ashtabula. 

“This is the beginning of a realization of a dream,” said Bishop David J. Bonnar. “When I came to Youngstown nearly five years ago, there was no archival office. The archives were here and there. There was no intentional effort to organize or to preserve.”

Bonnar said over the past three years, the diocese has assembled a staff, developed new archival policies and put in place a vision for the archives center. “I feel good about our future,” he said.

Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, said Catholicism has been a part of the community since it was founded. Daniel Shehy, among the first white settlers to the area, was an Irish Catholic.

“The church itself gained footholds in Columbiana and Stark counties 208 years ago,” he said, and then grew as waves of immigrants arrived in the region from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. 

Thus, the new archives center preserves not just the Catholic church’s religious heritage but also its importance to the region’s cultural and social history, he added. “The parishes that were founded to minister to these people and their descendants were social and cultural – as well as religious – centers for the faith communities that grew up in them.” 

During the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, immigrants displaced from Europe and the Middle East, and those from Latin America, expanded the ministry of the church, he said. 

The new center is especially critical today, MVHS’ Lawson said, as the Catholic population declines and local parishes are consolidated. “It will preserve not only the history of the church as an organization, but also the individuals, families, social activities, schools, religious orders and cultural traditions that define each parish community.”

Pictured at top: From left are Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society; Joan Lawson, chancellor and archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown; and Bishop David J. Bonnar.