The elaborate bays, wings and bell tower of St. Andrew’s Church once anchored Hungarian and German festivals, welcoming generations of immigrant workers to the neighborhood south of St. Paul’s Como Lake.

After nearly a century of weddings and baptisms inside its red-brick walls, the joyous noise went silent in 2011, when the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis merged the dwindling Catholic parish with another and deconsecrated the 1920s-era church building.

After a brief lease to another religious institution, the structure reopened in the fall of 2013 as part of the Twin Cities German Immersion charter school. A gutted former sanctuary is now a gym. A basement fellowship hall serves as a cafeteria.

While terracotta tiling remains, more than just the church interior has been altered.

As of 2013, a new addition physically links the back of the former St. Andrew’s to the 1950s-era school building next door. The neighboring rectory was demolished when the school arrived. A convent was torn down decades ago.

“We have a terracotta tile roof up there that at some point will need to be replaced,” said immersion school executive director Ted Anderson on Thursday, predicting costs to exceed $500,000. Around him, students played a German handball game called Volkerball on the hard plastic-laminate flooring of the old sanctuary, which Anderson said isn’t suitable to host visiting teams for the school’s preferred sports — basketball and volleyball.

The popular K-8 school now faces a prickly problem, one that might inspire the complete demolition of the old St. Andrew’s — or its preservation as a St. Paul historic site.

German Immersion, which opened at a different location as a K-1 school in 2005, has added a grade level or grade section almost yearly.

Students who enrolled in kindergarten have stayed through middle school. Classrooms are full, forcing sensitive one-on-one discussions with special-needs students into the hallways.

“When we moved in, we didn’t need to accommodate three sections (for every grade),” said Kelly Laudon, former board chair with the 580-student school. “We also at that time weren’t sure what our attrition levels would be. We had some projections, but not the data. We’ve had the pleasing problem that kids are staying all the way through eighth grade.”

The school has posted plans online and held discussions with the city and the District 10 Como Community Council about demolishing St. Andrew’s and replacing it with a new three-story school building, including a modern gym suitable for visiting teams, cafeteria and school rooms.

“We can use that same footprint of real estate and build a purpose-built structure that contains the additional classrooms we need,” Laudon said.

NEIGHBORHOOD OPPOSITION

Some neighborhood residents are livid.

Under the title Save Historic St. Andrew’s, a coalition of homeowners, former parishioners and proponents of historic preservation have asked the city to block the demolition of the former church, which they call an unofficial landmark and a key piece of the city’s cultural and architectural history.

“There’s been a school in this neighborhood since 1920,” said Kevin Anderson, president of Save Historic St. Andrew’s. “We value a school in our neighborhood. However, we also value the character of this unique area, which is Warrendale, and that’s what we’re working to preserve — the character of our neighborhood.”

Roy Neal, a Hamline-Midway resident and historic preservationist whose wife attended St. Andrew’s Catholic School as a child, said their group nearly took the German Immersion School to court to stop the demolition of its bell tower a few months ago.

The preservationists were successful, but relations have been salty ever since.

“This is the most iconic building in the neighborhood,” Neal said. “It’s been there a century. The school has been there five years … and they have not been open to collaboration or cooperation on other options.”

Members of Save Historic St. Andrew’s have noted that the church was designed by Charles Hausler, who served as St. Paul’s first city architect and also in the state Senate for 16 years, beginning in 1922, before returning to private practice.

Hausler, who died in the early 1970s, had a hand in many St. Paul schools, park buildings, fire stations and branch libraries, including the Minnesota Milk Building on University Avenue, now an office building.

Save Historic St. Andrew’s recently found a new avenue to block demolition: They’ve nominated the former church as a local landmark.

On Nov. 5, following a 3½-hour public hearing that drew dozens of speakers from both sides, the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission voted 8-1 to designate St. Andrew’s as a St. Paul Heritage Preservation site.

It’s the same local historic designation awarded to the George Latimer Central Library, the James J. Hill House, the Church of St. Casimir and Mickey’s Diner. The designation is intended to preserve the former church from being torn down.

School officials question the ethics and legality of using a city process to force an independent charter school to spend state education dollars on historic preservation.

“The German Immersion School, a charter school, is being asked to preserve a church structure,” Laudon said. “And that is not what our educational dollars, our tax dollars, are for. This designation proposal is being used as a weapon to stop our school proposal. Those who are seeking it are not contributing anything to try to maintain the structure. They’re just seeking to stop this school from providing the space that’s needed by our students.”

Heritage Preservation staff, however, found that the former church met four of seven possible criteria that would make it eligible for the designation, including its cultural and architectural significance.

In fact, architectural historian Larry Millett noted in the American Institute of Architects’ “Guide to the Architecture of the Twin Cities” that St. Andrew’s Church is “one of St. Paul’s best period revival churches” and hailed “the quality of design and its beautiful detailing.”

The Romanesque Revival-style church borrows from northern Italy, southern France and the Byzantine period.

“Clearly, it’s a significant historic building, at least in my mind,” said commission member Stuart MacDonald at the time.

LAST STOP: CITY COUNCIL?

The HPC recommendation was forwarded to the St. Paul Planning Commission, which was scheduled to take up the question on Nov. 30. Rather than vote, the commission requested more time and has delayed action until at least Dec. 14.

School officials expect the final decision will rest with the St. Paul City Council in January, as will the school’s variance requests for parking and construction height.

The State Historic Preservation Office also will review the HPC recommendation.