The Church of the Assumption is a historic Catholic church of the Diocese of Nashville located in the Germantown neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977; both the church and the neighboring parochial school building and Buddeke-Byrne House form an integral part of the Germantown Historic District, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Early history
Construction and the Civil War
A full-page advertisement in the Nashville Tennessean (now The Tennessean) describes what was then known as North Nashville as "away out in the country" with "cow paths and lanes" that went through "woods and fields." German immigrants arrived in Nashville in the 1830s and 40s, owing to increased political turmoil. Assumption's future benefactors the Buddekes, the Rattermans (relatives of the Buddekes), and the Wessels arrived in Nashville ca. 1835, then in 1842 and 1843 respectively. J.H. Buddeke moved to North Nashville after operating a successful grocery, whiskey, and real estate business.
German Catholics felt alienated from the Irish at Saint Mary’s, then the cathedral, and they gathered in the Buddeke family mansion for Mass, eventually drawing Germans from all across the city to form a major community in the same neighborhood. David McGavock sold a parcel with the requirement that the church be built within eighteen months, taking advantage of his own desire to sell land; this put the church at the forefront of growth north of downtown.
The church was built in 1858 using in part reclaimed bricks from Nashville's first Catholic church, Holy Rosary Cathedral, itself built in 1830 to replace an earlier timber structure. The cathedral was replaced in 1847 when Saint Mary of the Seven Sorrows was built on nearby 5th Avenue; at that time, it was converted to a hospital and orphanage before being sold to the state in 1857 for the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol. The former cathedral turned hospital was subsequently demolished, allowing for the bricks to be used for the construction of the new church. Father Ivo Schacht served as the first pastor. A mechanic's lien for $2,000 was placed on the church, but George Wessel, a parishioner, intervened at the auction, thereby saving the property.
The Church of the Assumption was dedicated with the rite of solemn blessing, as opposed to consecration, in 1859. For most of the following year, Father Innocent Bergrath, who was born in Rhenish Prussia, served as pastor following his ordination on 1860.
Father Emmeran Bliemel, also a German immigrant, came from Saint Vincent's Archabbey to serve the German immigrants of Nashville as the church's pastor, responding in the fall of 1860 to an invitation for priests from Bishop James Whelan, second bishop of Nashville, at some point replacing Father Bergrath. The outbreak of the Civil War and the secession of Tennessee in June 1861 led to the dispersal of parishioners, including of men for service in the Confederate forces, caused financial difficulties for the remaining parishioners. Father Bliemel continued to minister not only to his own dwindling congregation but to Federal troops in Nashville, arriving after the city was captured in 1862, despite his open support of the Confederate cause; he was accused of smuggling medical supplies to the Confederates and was finally caught with morphine in his possession. Bishop Whelan requested that Father Bliemel move to Saint Mary's, then the cathedral. He lived with the bishop at the residence located at Cedar and Somer Streets from where he could also serve Assumption.
As the war in the west continued to rage, Union troops pillaged and then took over the church in the summer of 1863 with Nashville serving as the largest western supply depot and medical center for the Federal forces. Father Bliemel's male parishioners had essentially all left to join the Confderate army; he had repeatedly asked permission to join the men in the field, even being elected chaplain of the 10th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, the "Bloody Tenth" primarily formed of Irishmen from Nashville before Father Bliemel received permission to serve. He joined the unit only after news of the Battle of Chickamauga reached Nashville and his superiors gave Father Bliemel permission to join the regiment. Father Bliemel died during the Battle of Jonesborough on August 31, 1864, becoming the first American chaplain killed in action when struck in the head by a projectile as he gave absolution to the regiment's colonel, William Grace. As of 2025, the church's green space is named in the priest's honor.
After the Civil War to the Golden Jubilee
The church in its early years had a precarious existence according to a newspaper report of its fiftieth-anniversary celebration in 1909, and its pastors were not always an exception. In the immediate period after the Civil War, pastors came and went. Fathers N.J. Konen and L. Schneider ministered following Father Bliemel's departure during the Civil War until 1867, to be replaced by Father W.J. Revis, who departed in turn in 1871. At that time, the parish was staffed by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; Father Philip Rist took charge in 1871, only to be replaced in 1873 by Father Joseph Uphaus, who was responsible for the construction of the rectory in 1874. A school followed in 1879 during Father Mathias Kenk’s term as pastor.
In 1882 Father Clement Roesener served as pastor until his death in 1887, having previously served as assistant pastor and chaplain to the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia. At that time Father Uphaus returned to Nashville, where he served for another ten years at Assumption. After his departure for Indiana, Father W.P. Shirack took over the care of the parish where he served for three years.
Despite the rural character of the land even after the Civil War, Nashville's German community, desirous of maintaining German life and customs, established commercial activity, particularly butcher shops, spoke German frequently, and maintained German fraternal organizations even before the Civil War. German societies continued to be active in the community into the 1870s and beyond, including a new organization co-founded by benefactor J.H. Buddeke in 1872.
Cardinal Samuel Stritch, later archbishop of Chicago and the first American to head a dicastery of the Roman Curia, was baptized at the Church of the Assumption; a historical marker on 7th Ave. outside of the church commemorates him as well as Archbishop John Floersh, bishop and later the first archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville from 1924 until his retirement in 1967.
All of Nashville's Catholics were called to participate in two processions in June 1900 for the Jubillee called that year by Pope Leo XIII, and the parish hosted a station on both occasions.
20th Century
Golden Jubilee to the Centennial The parish again found some stability when Father Henry Japes, regarded as one of the small diocese’s most popular priests, became pastor after the turn of the century. During his ministry, significant improvements were made in 1906 including the installation of the pews and oak floors, five hundred electric lights along the arches lit up for major occasions, memorial windows, all remaining in the church more than a century later, along with a since-replaced chapel for smaller services. The choir loft was expanded and decorated, the vestibule expanded, and two arches installed along the east-west axis to replace doors. A statue of Saint Anne believed to be the only one in this region of the South was placed near an altar in a prominent location. The newspaper makes record of the organ fund, and an instrument was installed around this time.
The church marked its golden jubilee with a pontifical high Mass celebrated by Bishop Thomas Byrne and a sermon delivered by Father John Larkin on the theme of the feast day, followed by Vespers. In this period, the church became known for preaching to Catholics on themes that set them apart from their Protestant neighbors, such as the Assumption of Mary as well as making serious efforts to host lectures from intellectually minded clerics such as Paulist priests in a way that would attract Protestant listeners. The jubilee preacher, Father Larkin, considered Assumption to be "worthy of any city", even as the diocese, covering the entire state, only had 20,000 Catholics total. In 1910, the future cardinal, Samuel Stritch, returned from Europe to celebrate a first solemn high Mass in the church; Father Japes gave the sermon before his former parishioner.
The pastor retired in 1914 before dying at the age of ninety-five in the spring of 1915, after over fifty years of ministry; for the funeral the bishop celebrated a solemn Requiem Mass at the church.
From 1915 to 1919, Franciscan friars served the parish; they immediately set to renovate the parish under a certain Father Odilo. By the time that the works were completed in the spring or early summer of 1916, the pulpit was removed, having been present however for the Golden Jubille of 1909. A mural of Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata was installed at that time. German communities faced pressure to integrate due to World War I; Assumption was no exception, and the German language disappeared; one service per Sunday was celebrated with German as the vernacular language during the childhood of Cardinal Stritch as he recalled in 1958. The parish returned to diocesan hands under the care of Father Edward Desmond; he served in his capacity as pastor as a diocesan delegate to the episcopal consecration of then-Bishop Stritch, the youngest American bishop at the time.
The church maintained at various points several thriving organizations for parishioners such as a youth guild active notably at the turn of the century and a chapter of the Confraternity of Christian Mothers first organized by Father Charles Schleuter, active particularly in the 1910s and 1920s alongside the Holy Name Society. Social gatherings like picnics occurred on a regular basis, including an annual Labor Day picnic which continued as late as 1961. The revived Confraternity of Christian Mothers celebrated its 75th anniversary with a Mass celebrated by Bishop James Daniel Niedergeses during Oktoberfest in 1989.
The Diocese of Nashville covered the entire state until the erection of the Diocese of Memphis in 1970, resulting in pastors who had geographically divided duties as far away as Memphis; in 1937, Father Joseph Cunningham was appointed pastor of Assumption as well as administrator of Immaculate Conception in Memphis being transferred to full-time ministry in West Tennessee. Father Aaron Gildea became pastor around the time of the transfer of his predecessor to Memphis, serving for over a decade.
The church's first steeple collapsed during a storm in the 1940s and was removed in 1950; its forty-feet tall replacement with an aluminum frame and copper shingles went up in October 1984.