ST. VINCENT’S ON CATHOLIC HILL
St. Vincent’s on Catholic Hill went up sometime between 1870 and 1875 possibly to serve a community of people of French descent who came here from Canada and worked in lumbering and the mills. A community of these new arrivals lived on the west shore of Pentwater Lake in a settlement referred to as “Frenchtown” where there was a school and a small number of houses.
St. Vincents Church is a simple but dignified white frame structure on today’s Sixth Street, the road into the village. The steeple has a conical roof topped by a cross. A bell was added later thanks to a subscription fund drive led by church member Sebastian Dennert in the early 1900s. He found support among church members and neighbors alike.
Source: “Church on the Hill,” Grand Rapids Press, 6-7-1952).