St. Mary's Catholic Church (Custer, Michigan)

Architectural styleModernist

Location85 S Madison Ave., Custer, Michigan, United States

Completed1966

St. Mary's Catholic Church
Main façade of St. Mary's Catholic Church
Interactive map of the St. Mary's Catholic Church area
General information
Architectural style	Modernist
Location	85 S Madison Ave., Custer, Michigan, United States
Completed	1966
Design and construction
Architect	Jonas Mulokas
Website
www.stmarycuster.org

St. Mary's Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church of the Diocese of Grand Rapids located in Custer, Michigan. Established in 1933, it continues to be a place of worship for Catholic residents of Custer and Scottville, Michigan following the closure of St. Jerome in Scottville in 2012.

Original structure

A community of Lithuanians began to settle in Custer, Michigan around 1912 and following World War I, the community grew further.^[1]^[2] The St. Mary's parish was originally established in 1933 with a Lithuanian priest, though the church itself lacked a Lithuanian identity.^[1]^[3]

Current structure

When Father B. Marčiulionis became the priest for the parish, he contacted Lithuanian American architect Jonas Mulokas.^[1] In their correspondences, Father Marčiulionis shared with Mulokas that the parish had a limited budget, with Mulokas saying that "the church lost its characteristic originality" due to the funding changes.^[1] Shortly before construction was completed, Father Ernst J. Bernotas was named as the priest for St. Mary's.^[1]

When completed in 1966, the new St. Mary's church shared design elements with Mulokas' earlier award-winning work, the Transfiguration Catholic Church in Queens, New York.^[1]^[4] Similar to the Transfiguration Catholic Church, the structure of the church is a modernist, A-frame building that has an adjacent bell tower.^[1]^[4] The interior features an altar displaying Lithuanian textile design elements and a backing wall made of multicolored bricks.^[1]

In 2012, the parish of St. Jerome in Scottville, Michigan merged with St. Mary's creating the St. Mary–St. Jerome Parish.^[5]^[6] Following the retirement of the pastor of St. Simon in Ludington, Michigan, the St. Mary–St. Jerome Parish created a "cluster" with the St. Simon Parish, sharing a pastor.^[7]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Švč. Mergelės Marijos bažnyčia Kasteryje". Lithuanian National Commission for Cultural Heritage (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2026-02-01.
↑ Cadzow, John (2020-01-31). "Mass Immigration". LITHUANIAN AMERICANS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES OF CLEVELAND.
↑ "Saint Mary – Saint Jerome Parish, Custer". Diocese of Grand Rapids. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
1 2 Petrulis, Vaidas; Tranavičiūtė, Brigita; Laurinaitis, Paulius Tautvydas (2024-09-26). Jonas Mulokas: architektūrinio identiteto paieškos globaliame pasaulyje (1 ed.). KTU Leidykla Technologija. doi:10.5755/e01.9786090218747. ISBN 978-609-02-1874-7. In 1956, construction began on the Lithuanian parish church of the Transfiguration of Christ in New York, which was completed and consecrated in 1962. This is Mulokas' most significant and widely recognised work. The project was awarded a prize at the American Society of Registered Architects. Later that year, the Queens Chamber of Commerce awarded a letter of commendation for the church, and a photograph of the Lithuanian Church appeared on the front page of the New York Times on 2 December 1962. The architecture of the A-frame church is much more restrained than his earlier churches in Chicago and East Saint Louis. It marks the evolution of the architect's ideas. Influenced by the international stylistic trends prominent in Chicago's architectural milieu, the architect immersed himself in the search for a combination of modernity and contemporaneity. Later, in 1966, Mulokas designed the lesser-known St. Mary's Church in Custer, Michigan, in a similar style.
↑ Hart, Megan (2012-04-13). "Muskegon County parish clusters part of plan to make diocese stronger, bishop says". MLive. Retrieved 2026-02-01.
↑ "Saint Mary – Saint Jerome Parish, Custer". Diocese of Grand Rapids. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
↑ Rooted in Christ Pastoral Planning Process (PDF). Diocese of Grand Rapids. 29 June 2025. p. 45.

43°57′12″N 86°13′14″W / 43.9534°N 86.2206°W / 43.9534; -86.2206

Current structure

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