The 145-foot steeple of Holy Guardian Angels Church in Roselle can be seen for miles around, and has been the crowning glory of an historic example of Gothic architecture in Carroll County. The 1904 Indiana limestone foundation supports elaborate stained glass windows, a vaulted 37-foot high ceiling, statues of 26 angels, the four evangelists—Mathew, Mark, Luke and John—and numerous saints, mosaics, liturgical symbols and gilded alters. And now, the Holy Guardian Angels Church and Cemetery has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. “The addition of the Holy Guardian Angels Church to the National Register of Historic Places is a significant milestone for Roselle as it continues to preserve and celebrate its history for future generations of Iowans to enjoy,” says State Historian, Laura Sadowsky. “We congratulate and commend all who worked so hard to make this a successful nomination.” Roselle was settled in about 1868, but the Catholic parishioners were regularly traveling to Mount Carmel for church services. The first Holy Guardian Angels Church was built in the bustling German community in 1874, but by the early 1900s, they had outgrown it and decided to build a new one. Not being on a rail line made the construction even more difficult, taking 2,116 trips with horse-drawn wagons, 93 days of work with horses and 393 days of manual labor. All this being done at a cost of $48,000, and while many of the parishioners were establishing their own homes.
