Spirits rise as parishioners at aging St. James raise funds for new facility

Stacy J. Willis

Wednesday, July 5, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

The Rev. Michael Blackburn takes a tube of Chapstick from his pocket, lays it on the sanctuary floor, and watches it roll toward the wall.

"See?" he says. "There's a problem."

New cracks stretch through old coats of paint on St. James the Apostle Catholic Church's interior walls. Upright choir chairs have somehow begun to tilt backward, tipping singers slightly toward the ceiling.

The church is sinking -- the east side before the west -- creating a slanted floor in the sanctuary and a need for 260 parishioners to relocate. While relocating means a new, bigger building in a more accessible location, it also means leaving a significant piece of Las Vegas history behind.

St. James was built on H Street in West Las Vegas nearly 60 years ago -- the second Catholic church in Southern Nevada. St. Joan of Arc was first.

"There is a lot of history here," Blackburn said about his church. "I think this church has been very important to this community."

St. James' building -- ever-remodeled, thrice expanded -- stands today across from a housing project in West Las Vegas under the shadow of the stilted Interstate 15.

When it was built in 1942, it catered to the up-and-coming Bonanza Village neighborhood in what was then the booming outskirts of Las Vegas.

The original A-frame sanctuary was constructed by parishioners with donated lumber.

A few years later Union Pacific Railroad donated two railroad ganghouses to accommodate growth -- creating a U-shaped, three-room church. Worshippers in the third room watched services through two large mirrors that reflected the altar around the corner.

Over the years the church has become an anchor in the local black community as Las Vegas' only Catholic church serving a predominantly black congregation, with youth programs, programs aiding the poor and community gatherings.

"At first it catered to the Hispanic population," said Grace Lorraine Taplin, who lived four blocks from the church in 1942.

"There weren't that many black Catholics here. But it's changed."

Taplin was one of the first black women to join the Catholic Daughters sorority in Las Vegas. Other members of the church include state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, and Las Vegas Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald.

There are 3.2 million black Catholics in the United States; more than half of St. James' parishioners are black.

Blackburn said the more staid Catholic worship traditions are blended with black cultural traditions in his church, creating what he calls "a more energetic atmosphere."

"It differs from some Catholic churches in that people stand up, and sometimes they talk out, and we have gospel music in addition to traditional liturgy," Blackburn said.

St. James established a gospel choir 20 years ago and today it is 38 members large and known for its performances across the city.

Bobbye Boxx has been attending St. James since 1950, when, in her 30s, she converted to Catholicism from the Baptist Church.

"I just liked it better. I liked to go into St. James and pray in the middle of the day, and light a candle, and just pray there. I just felt more comfortable there. It was right for me," Boxx said.

In the last 50 years, funerals for Boxx's grandparents and mother were held at St. James, her two daughters were baptized there, and she has spent virtually every Sunday morning and Wednesday night in the building.

"The people are family, the church is home," Boxx said. "You can go to other, bigger churches and extend your hand to someone and it's like a wet noodle," Taplin said. "But here, people are walking around hugging -- sometimes it gets a bit noisy -- people are friendly."

While time has solidified the St. James community, it has eroded the foundation under the church. Today the east wall has dipped more than 6 inches into the ground, causing the doorways to need refitting and a lengthy ridge to emerge in the floor.

The Catholic diocese has purchased land at the corner of Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards and plans to build a $2.3 million, 400-seat church for St. James. Fund-raising is ongoing; the congregation has raised about $1 million for the project already.

"It's going to be nice, and we're happy about that, but I know I'm going to miss this church," Taplin said. "Sometimes a little small building like this makes it friendlier."

"I'd much rather it stay right where it is," Boxx said. "It's been there so long, and it's always been a good thing for the neighborhood. "I know it will be the same community -- the same family -- in the new place," Boxx said.

"But I just love that little church there, you know?"