As Louisville spread eastward along two streets, Frankfort Avenue and
Bardstown Road, two churches were established to accommodate the
growth—St. Francis of Assisi in 1886 and St. Frances of Rome in 1887.
Father Thomas Walter White was the founding pastor of the latter.
An elementary school opened in 1890 and was housed in the St. Frances
of Rome church structure. The current school building, constructed by
1930, served as the parish school until 1975 and thereafter was home to
various organizations, theater groups and a school for the
learning-disabled.
In 1991, as it determined the best use of the school building, the
parish studied the demographics of the area and the needs and challenges
of the neighboring community, looking for a creative answer “outside
the box.” It finally decided to establish a 501-C3 non-profit
corporation, the Clifton Center, which leases the building from the
parish, while allowing the parish to maintain space for its exclusive
use. The Clifton Center serves the Greater Louisville area with a
high-quality facility for productions, meetings, programs and office
space for long-term tenants. It includes a 500-seat theater.
Today, St. Frances of Rome is an active and vibrant faith community
with more than 1,200 parishioners. In many ways its growth can be
attributed to the 1991 revitalization that began with the establishment
of the Clifton Center. The renaissance includes forty-seven “associate”
family members—a unique concept that allows those with family or
historical connections from another parish to attach themselves to St.
Frances of Rome.
Even without a school, the parish boasts eighty children under the
age of five years who receive religious nurturing through the education
programs of the parish.