MIDTOWN'S revival during the past decade has had a significant effect on the Holy Rosary Church, 3601 Milam.

In recent years the church, which is located between Milam and Travis streets, has experienced unprecedented growth — both in overall numbers and in the amount of young families who are becoming parishioners.

Holy Rosary Church has experienced such a renaissance, in fact, that it has outgrown its facilities.

Two years ago, church leaders began looking into an expansion project that will culminate next June with the opening of a new parish hall, an expanded rectory and a new office complex inside the hall.

The 15,000-square-foot construction project is being designed to meet the growing needs of the Holy Rosary Church community and to make the church one of the most visible symbols of Midtown.

"The church is getting livelier," said Rev. Joseph Konkel, who has been pastor of Holy Rosary Church for nine years. "It was becoming clear that we were outgrowing our facilities. Initially, we wanted to enlarge the rectory, then we started looking at the parish hall."

That parish hall was built in 1933, and with minimal renovations over the ensuing 70 years, it became clear that the facility needed a significant overhaul.

"The parish hall was in disrepair," Konkel said. "It did not meet (Americans with Disabilities Act) codes, it had poor plumbing, it just needed major renovations. The more we started planning, the more we decided rather than restore, let's replace."

And while Holy Rosary Church purchased about 7,000 square feet of office space on a small block of Louisiana about a decade ago, the church decided the best use of that space would be as an educational facility, with the construction of a new office becoming part of the improvement project.

Founded in 1913

Holy Rosary Church was home to a thriving community of members during its first decades of existence. Founded in 1913, the current church complex was built 20 years later, when the country was in the grips of the Great Depression.

"It was the only major construction project in Houston in 1933," Konkel said.

As Houston grew, so did the church. By the 1970s, hundreds of families called Holy Rosary Church home. But when suburban living became the rage, registration numbers for Holy Rosary Church went down.

"The push to the suburbs hurt us," Konkel said. "What kept the church alive in many ways was that in the 1970s this parish became home to a large Vietnamese population."

At one point, Holy Rosary Church has had seven Vietnamese priests living in a rectory that was meant to house four. Today, the church continues to hold twice-weekly masses in Vietnamese, and about a quarter of the parishioners at the church are Vietnamese.

As Midtown began experiencing a revival in the mid-1990s, so did the church. Since Konkel became pastor in 1995 after serving in the campus ministries department of the University of Houston, registration numbers have gradually increased.

"This parish came alive as Midtown came alive," he said. "A lot of it was people who grew up here, maybe were married here, moved away and then returned to the city and the church. We have 100 ZIP codes represented in this parish. The Dominicans have a reputation for solid preaching and traditional service. We still do one Latin mass on Sunday.

"The spirit of the Dominicans is a traditional approach to celebration and that attracts people."

Construction funding

This all led to the decision to construct the new hall, rectory and office. While Holy Rosary Church received $1 million in funding through a variety of foundations, the majority of the money was supplied by parishioners.

"We started fund-raising just as the market took a nose dive," Konkel laughed, "but we ran just under $6 million in terms of fund-raising."

When construction is complete in June of next year, Holy Rosary Church will essentially be a "church block," which will include the existing church building and the new parish hall.

Between the two buildings will be a courtyard area. The new housing complex for the Dominican Friars will be located next to the existing rectory north of Travis Street.

"We're going to be able to expand the housing from accommodating four to accommodating 14," Konkel said.

Education building

With the new office inside the parish hall, the current office will become a religious education building that will feature adult education classes, Bible study for youth and young adults, and other educational programs.

Konkel said the new parish hall, which was designed by Marion Spiers Associates, will feature an Indiana limestone facade and a Vermont slate roof. The Gothic architecture was designed to make the building almost a mirror image of the existing church.

Coincidentally, construction for the Holy Rosary Church project is being done by Fretz Construction Co., whose president, Robert Fretz Jr., is the grandson of the man who built the original Holy Rosary Church building in 1933.

"What you're going to see is a unified city block," Fretz said. "Everything is purposefully being done to create a similar look to the church that was built 70 years ago. We even bought the limestone from the same quarry we did back in 1933."

Fretz Construction has also done renovation and construction projects for St. Vincent de Paul Church, St. Anne's Catholic Church and Saint Jerome Catholic Church, among others.

'Architectural landmark'

"This church is an architectural landmark and a religious landmark in the city," said Fretz, who is a member of Holy Rosary Church. "It's special for us to work on this project for a lot of reasons. We're taking a lot of pride in this."

When parishioners walk into the new Holy Rosary Church complex upon completion of the renovation project next summer, Konkel said he wants them to feel that the church has entered a new era.

"They're going to see more of a Renaissance atmosphere, where the life of the church is really represented within the neighborhood," he said. "This will be a center of activity, of worship, education, outreach and fellowship."

Fretz Construction has placed a 24-hour Web cam of the Holy Rosary Church construction site on the church's Web site. To view the project in real time as it is being completed, go to www.holyrosaryparish.org.