Built by Polish immigrants in 1902 as St. Casimir Polish Roman Catholic Church, the Casimir Cultural Center is a living symbol that honors the past, celebrates the present and is contributing to an exciting future in the Cambria City Cultural District of Johnstown.
Closed in 2009, the parish of SS. Casimir & Emerich was once the largest Polish-American congregation in Central Pennsylvania. It served as the mother church for the Polish parishes in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown through the training of ethnic Polish priests and sisters that were sent to serve the Polish parishes in the Diocese.
In 2015, Stella Property Development and Event Production LLC purchased the former St. Casimir from 1901 Church, Inc. Also located within the Cambria City Historic District, Stella is a privately-owned company that is dedicated not only to the preserving and repurposing of the neighborhood’s architectural treasures but also to the continuation of the cultural traditions associated with them.
The Casimir Cultural Center hosts culturally diverse concerts, small theater productions, symposiums, art and music events, festivals and private events. It also houses a permanent collection of treasured artifacts from the closed parishes of Cambria City and items that reflect the ethnic religious heritage of the region.
For more information about the Cultural Center and its event schedule, please follow Stella Property Development on Facebook and Instagram. You can also find information on the following web sites:
stellajohnstown.com and
casimircc.com.
Hungarian immigrants organized St. Ladislaus Parish in 1905 and renamed it "St. Emerich" after completing the construction of their church at Sixth Avenue and Chestnut Street in 1913. St. Emerich's congregation merged with St. Casimir in 1990 and the St. Emerich church building was demolished in 2003.