St. Peter's Church (Brownsville, Pennsylvania)

St. Peter's Church is a historic Catholic church in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Greensburg. St. Peter's Church also has a partner church in Grindstone, Pennsylvania named St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church built in 1931.DescriptionThe first Catholic parish in Fayette County, it is the oldest continuously operating parish in Western Pennsylvania. It is also believed to have been the spot on which the first religious service of any kind offered west of the Allegheny Mountains was held. On July 1, 1754, French troops on their way to capture Fort Necessity from the British climbed the bank from the Monongahela River with their Chaplain Rev. Denys Baron and prayed for victory. That mass of the French troops is depicted in one of the stained glass windows in the church.The stone Gothic Revival church building on Church Street is a landmark. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It is located in the Brownsville Northside Historic District. At the time when the church was built, many European settlers where moving their way into the area. The Catholic Irish settlers decided to build a church the same as other religious groups in the area. To show wealth and power, they decided to build a church overlooking the town that could be seen from almost any perspective. To tie in the local history of the area, they built the church of rough river rock and depicted the French and Indian War in the stained glass window at the anterior of the church. The stained glass windows, which feature 32 different shades of blue depict Catholic history from 1754 to 1843.