St. Helen's Catholic Church

4870 East Belmont Avenue
Fresno

The land for the church, rectory, convent and school was a 10-acre pumpkin patch when St. John’s Parish purchased it in 1948.

The school was opened in 1953, using war surplus army barracks converted to classrooms.  A surplus government building was remodeled to the church in 1954.

St. Helen’s was established as a parish in 1955.

New classrooms began to replace the temporary buildings in 1956.  The new convent was completed in 1959.  Carl Huneke, Century Stained Glass Studio, San Francisco, created the leaded, cathedral stained glass windows in the convent chapel.

The new St. Helen’s church, designed by architects James J. Nargis and Edwin S. Darden was completed by Easter Sunday 1966.

The brilliant faceted glass windows in the new church were also created by Carl Huneke, and were installed in 1968.  Inch thick glass set in a thin epoxy matrix to allow the carefully chipped edges of the glass to refract light in radiant colors.  The parts of the mass are the theme for the windows in the nave of the church.  The donors of the windows and other features of the church are listed on a plaque in the vestibule of the church.