Westlake's Churches Share Their Long Histories

Twelve Westlake churches as part of the city's ongoing bicentennial celebrations.

Each church offered tours, refreshments and a peek into their pasts. Some churches had a lot of history to cover, like Dover Congregational, which is also celebrating its 200th birthday this year. The church was founded by settlers from New England and first met in people's homes. Eventually, the congregation built a log cabin in 1822, then a white frame church in 1833, then a yellow brick church in 1952, and finally the structure standing today.

Others are young by comparison, like , which constructed its first building in Westlake in the 1970s. The church was established in 1885 as the first in the diocese to serve the growing Slovak population. The congregation started to shrink after World War II, and in 1970, the church on East 92nd and Hulton Avenue burned down. In 1973, St. Ladislas was constructed on Bassett Road.

One hundred and fifty year old boasts the descendants of several founding families as congregation members. The church still has the original altar, school bell and church bell in the building on Detroit Road. Congregation members bought six acres of land at its current location in 1863 and finished the church in 1864. The church cemetery located across the street has some extremely old graves from founding members.