Bismarck, North Dakota - News

STEELE - Back in 1958, the Catholic parishes at Steele and Burnstad, 50 miles apart, built nearly identical churches. The building materials were ordered from the same company and assembled on site - what the Rev. Jerome Hunkler colloquially calls "a church in a box."

Fifty years later, St. Francis De Sales in Sales and the former St. Clara's in Burnstad are now joined at the hip, so to speak, to celebrate a golden anniversary.

The two church buildings now stand back-to-back in Steele, placed mirror-image to each other, a project that more than doubled the footprint of St. Francis de Sales' building.

St. Francis De Sales, with about 250 members, including 70 children, covers an area so wide that the parish includes people from 13 different addresses, Hunkler said, and covers 2,500 square miles in all of Kidder and parts of Burleigh and Stutsman counties. Since Hunkler also serves Tappen and Medina on a rotating schedule, he puts in "a lot of windshield time," he said - 25,000 to 30,000 miles a year.

After the closure of St. Clara's in 2005, the church was put up for sale on bids, Hunkler said. St. Francis De Sales was running out of room, so Hunkler started making inquiries about St. Clara's building.

Two bids for the church of $1,500 and $1,000 had been rejected, but the Burnstad parishioners, happy for an option where the building would remain a church, offered the building and furnishings free to the Steele congregation, Hunkler said.

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Hunkler, who has been serving Steele-Tappen-Medina for six years, is a native of Napoleon, but wearing a black embroidered jacket and cap, jeans with a big silver belt buckle and tan cowboy boots, he looks and sounds the image of a trucker-cowboy, complete with a Southland twang, whose origins he himself can't explain.

The cowboy ambience intensifies with the gospel hymns filling the church's weekday-empty space. "How Great Thou Art," country-style, is playing as Hunkler gives a tour of the renovated church.

Amysterious corner shelf just inside the front door proves to be a cowboy hat rack. So popular has the hat rack proved that several men have purchased cowboy hats for their young sons, just so they can use it, Hunkler said.

Because Hunkler has acted as an unofficial general contractor at times, he knows costs and dimensions, square footage. The details reveal close attention has been paid to the needs of parishioners.

Hunkler was thinking of his elderly parishioners when it was decided to keep both church sections at ground level, no steps, no ramps, wide hallways, all handicap-accessible.

He chose to include baby-changing tables in each bathroom, and when guys were puzzled as to why one should be installed in the men's room, he just gave them a get-with-the-times look and a raised eyebrow.

Hunkler dislikes traditional coat racks with hangers, so shop class students made coat hooks. Hunkler had them hang a row at traditional height, and another at row child-height, so the little ones could reach them.

On the lower level below the original church, original linoleum tile floors still carry shuffleboard tiles, which Hunkler said he has seen in his last three parishes. Shuffleboard must have been big 50 years ago, he guesses. The rest of the downstairs has been converted into seven pine-paneled classrooms.

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The "80 tons of building" that was St. Clara's was moved to Steele in 2006 at a cost of $30,000 and placed end-to-end with the St. Francis De Sales structure. Identical in size and shape, the north Burnstad half became the new sanctuary and altar, with carved Stations of the Cross statuary originally from a German church southwest of Wishek. The Steele church, the south wing, is now a 170-seat dining hall and new kitchen.

The weaknesses of the original building was that it was built in the days of cheap fuel, Hunkler said. Improvements included 7 inches of insulation, new windows and doors, new siding, roof, updated air conditioning and heating, new concrete sidewalks, new electrical systems, lights, carpeting and a state-of-the-art sound system.

Hunkler removed 75 overgrown trees, which allowed for an expansion of the graveled parking lot. The new protective roof canopy relieves the long lines of the building and indicates the front entrance.

Where the Steele and Burnstad buildings were joined, a gathering space, offices, sacristy and bathrooms, all handicapped accessible, have been added. In all, the project added 4,100 square feet of space.

The final cost for the renovation came to $600,000, Hunkler said. At about $100 per square foot, Hunkler said he figures that's about half of what new construction would have cost. The new complex is insured for $1.5 million, Hunkler said. The concrete work was so good that, when complete, the difference between the two elevations was less than 1/8 inch.

The only mop-up remaining is replacing some solid doors with glass, covering the exterior of the stained glass window with protective acrylic, and moving a stained glass side panel to the new front entrance, a bit more landscaping and a storage building for the lawnmower, he said.

Just inside the front door are posted the cornerstone plates from all three churches:St. Clara's, St. Francis De Sales, and the new combined church building.

And this rejoined twin set actually has a triplet:A similar church stands in New Leipzig, Hunkler said.

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)