Published: March 02, 2008 12:29 am      

Shrines to immigrant culture at risk

The immigrants who crowded into Cambria City in the late 1800s forged a hardscrabble and sometimes dangerous existence, toiling in thundering mills and cramped mines.

But the elegant churches they constructed rose above it all.

Even as ethnic lines blurred and heavy industry faded, those structures stood the test of time and have become inextricably intertwined with Johnstown’s cultural history.

That’s why the proposed closure of four of the neighborhood’s Catholic churches next year has struck a nerve throughout the Johnstown area and beyond.

“It is tragic. It’s devastating,” said Rosemary Pawlowski, executive director of Cambria City’s Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center.

The neighborhood’s residents included many families from southern and eastern Europe. Historians say immigrants from those areas often were forced to take jobs that were more dangerous and lower-paying.

By 1880, about 85 percent of Cambria City’s residents were foreign-born.

They banded together along ethnic lines.

They built social clubs, and they built lavish churches that defied their meager economic means.

“Cambria City preserves a lot of the immigrant institutions,” said Richard Burkert, Johnstown Area Heritage Association executive director.

“I think the highest expression of that whole culture is the churches.”

That affiliation continues today. The neighborhood’s churches were an integral part of FolkFest and, more recently, of Cambria City Ethnic Festival.

Monsignor Raymond Balta, an Ethnic Festival organizer, acknowledged that closing four churches would be “a loss for the city.”

But Balta is vowing to continue the Labor Day celebration even if five Catholic parishes are merged into one.

“I’m going to do my best to keep this going. It may be more important than ever,” said Balta, whose St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church is not involved in the merger.

If the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese’s plan is not changed, there would be a huge void at the 2009 Ethnic Festival.

And there would be an even larger void in the hearts of parishioners, residents and community leaders.

A church is featured prominently in Bottle Works’ logo. And Pawlowski said she still is stunned by the Cambria City landscape as it unfolds for drivers approaching from Brownstown.

“It takes your breath away,” she said. “You go down that hill and see all those church spires.”