The church was right downtown on Orange Avenue. Everything was right downtown…It had wonderful stained glass windows that have been saved all these many years and are still in our new cathedral that we have now. The original church was the only Catholic church in the area. As a matter of fact the Winter Park church (St. Margaret Mary) was kind of a mission of St. James originally. During wartime there were so many additional Catholics that came into town through the services that they had to put a little addition on the south side of the St. James Church. It was a frame building but it was very historic the way most of the churches were built at that time.
On Sunday we always got up and at that time you didn’t eat breakfast before you went to church so we always went to one of the earlier Masses at the church. My husband (Bill Buning) sang in the choir. That was one of the reasons we went to a certain Mass. Then afterwards the choir members would all meet and we’d go across the street to a drugstore that had breakfast. That was kind of a fun thing because we got to meet other people there….
I remember the Pastor was Monsignor Bishop and he had been there a long time. He was very well loved. And he was very active in the community too. He made everybody feel at home. He had also served during the war as a chaplain but then came back afterwards…He was the Pastor there (St. James) until he passed away.
Joan Buning shares her early memories of Orlando when she and her husband, Bill Buning, would walk to church from their first home on Ridgewood Avenue. The Bunings would later move to a large family home on Lake Eola where they raised eight children and Mr. Buning ran his very successful insurance business from the downstairs office.
Listen to a Sunday from history from an oral history interview on April 21, 2011.
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Monsignor Bishop at Saint James Cathedral
Photo of Monsignor Bishop at Saint James Church in downtown Orlando. Father Bishop was Pastor of Saint James Church from 1933-1957 and...
Joan and Bill Buning, St. James Cathedral
July 1981 photo of St. James parishioners Bill and Joan Buning with Fr. Bill in the atrium of the Cathedral Center at...
St. James Church
Photo of the original St. James Church on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando. The church cost $50,000. and the contractor was Patrick Brannon. According...
St. Joseph's Academy in Downtown Orlando
Photo of St. Joseph's Academy on the corner of Main (Magnolia Avenue) and Robinson Street in downtown Orlando. According to church history, "Father...
In Memory of Joan Schaeffer Buning
Surrounded by her grandchildren, great grandchildren, family and friends, Joan Schaeffer Buning's Mass of Christian Burial was Friday, May 2, 2014 at...
The church was right downtown on Orange Avenue. Everything was right downtown...It had wonderful stained glass windows that have been saved all these many years and are still in our new cathedral that we have now. The original church was the only Catholic church in the area. As a matter of fact the Winter Park church (St. Margaret Mary) was kind of a mission of St. James originally. During wartime there were so many additional Catholics that came into town through the services that they had to put a little addition on the south side of the St. James Church. It was a frame building but it was very historic the way most of the churches were built at that time.
On Sunday we always got up and at that time you didn't eat breakfast before you went to church so we always went to one of the earlier Masses at the church. My husband (Bill Buning) sang in the choir. That was one of the reasons we went to a certain Mass. Then afterwards the choir members would all meet and we'd go across the street to a drugstore that had breakfast. That was kind of a fun thing because we got to meet other people there....
I remember the Pastor was Monsignor Bishop and he had been there a long time. He was very well loved. And he was very active in the community too. He made everybody feel at home. He had also served during the war as a chaplain but then came back afterwards...He was the Pastor there (St. James) until he passed away.
Joan Buning shares her early memories of Orlando when she and her husband, Bill Buning, would walk to church from their first home on Ridgewood Avenue. The Bunings would later move to a large family home on Lake Eola where they raised eight children and Mr. Buning ran his very successful insurance business from the downstairs office.
