The tallest church in Cleveland, St. Michael the Archangel began in 1881 as a German mission church of St. Mary’s on the Flats, the first Catholic church in the city. The current High Victorian Gothic church, with its impressive 232-foot spire, was completed in 1892 by Chicago architect Adolf Druiding, with local sculptor Bernard Shildmacher crafting its three archangel statues. It would be 30 years before another building in Cleveland eclipsed the height of St. Michael. By World War I, English services were introduced and, by World War II, only about 25% of the congregation was German. Today, St. Michael the Archangel continues to offer bilingual services in English and Spanish, a result of the immigrant Latin American population that brought new life to the church in the 1970s