{"id":353218,"date":"2026-07-26T23:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T23:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353218\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T23:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T23:41:12","slug":"hidden-piece-of-history-discovered-beneath-st-peters-parking-lot-in-slinger-wi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353218\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden piece of history discovered beneath St. Peter’s parking lot in Slinger, WI"},"content":{"rendered":"

During Sunday Mass, Rev. Rick Stoffel shared the story with parishioners, using historic photos of the church campus to explain what had been hidden underground for decades.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Photo courtesy Slinger Historical Museum<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Stoffel, the area has changed dramatically over the years, particularly after improvements to Highway 175. Historic buildings once occupied the section of the property, to the east of Clare Hall, that is now used for parking and recreation.<\/p>\n

The original school building was eventually replaced by the current school, with its first story completed in 1949 and a second story added in 1959. The former convent also remained on the property for several years before it was demolished.<\/p>\n

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Or so everyone thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Mac Paving<\/a> was out there to test the strength of the subsoil, they had a truck driving over it,\u201d Stoffel said. \u201cThe rear wheels of the truck sank two feet into the soft subsoil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy Ken Leeson<\/p>\n

The truck was safely removed, but the incident raised concerns about the stability of the ground.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019re going to have to dig here until we find something solid,’\u201d Stoffel said.<\/p>\n

Instead of simply finding better soil, the excavation uncovered the concrete basement walls and floor of the former convent that had apparently been buried rather than completely removed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy Ken Leeson<\/p>\n

\u201cThey found the concrete walls and floor of the basement of the old convent,\u201d Stoffel said.<\/p>\n

The walls in the foundation were about 2-feet thick and made of stone and cement.<\/p>\n

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This wasn\u2019t the first discovery at St. Pete\u2019s. The upper parking lot was also paved and according to the parish building and grounds committee, they found parts from wagons and the old gas station. There used to be a wagon building factory in the upper church parking lot.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy Slinger History Museum<\/p>\n

F. Kletti & Sons Blacksmiths and Wagonmakers<\/a> was on the site around 1890. Now, the site is home to a large parking lot just north of St. Peter Church. Artifacts from the old shop were apparently being found prior to paving the lot.<\/p>\n

\"parkin\"Photo courtesy Ken Leeson<\/p>\n

Back to the lower lot, paving crews filled the old basement with heavy-duty rock to create a stable base before new asphalt was installed. The completed parking lot will continue to serve both as a play area for St. Peter\u2019s School students and parking for the parish offices.<\/p>\n

Stoffel admitted the discovery caught everyone by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told people at Mass this morning that we officially had an archaeological site in Slinger,\u201d Stoffel joked, \u201cBut we did not find any dead Egyptian pharaohs.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a side note:<\/p>\n

-Parishioners who attended St. Peter School in the 1940\u2019s and 1950\u2019s said the nuns were the teachers at the school. There were about 8 to 10 nuns that taught music at the school. After the nunnery, the sisters moved into Clare Hall.<\/p>\n

-From the St. Peter Parish 150 Years 1856-2006 history book:\u00a0\u201cThe School Sisters of St. Francis came to teach, continuing their services here until 1991. The core of the present church was begun in 1892. The 113 x 49-foot cream-city brick structure was built at a cost of $19,300 and dedicated\/blessed on May 1, 1893.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Another local historian Larry Gundrum also passed along the thought, that the foundation found may have been tied to the Slinger Transfer trucking company.<\/p>\n

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\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During Sunday Mass, Rev. Rick Stoffel shared the story with parishioners, using historic photos of the church campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-353218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}