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It's a gloomy Monday morning. And from the front, there's little evidence of anything out of the ordinary at the old St. Peter's Church on Market Street, Downtown.

But the view from the side tells a different story. The former Roman Catholic Church, which closed in 2007, is fast being reduced to a pile of debris.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says that Saint Peter's predates the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, which was formed in 1843. That would make it among the first 100 Roman Catholic churches in the United States of America.

St. Peter's is one of two worship sites of the former St. Martin de Porres parish that are disappearing this summer.

Crews recently completed demolition of the former Holy Trinity Church on Seventh Avenue, within sight of St. Peter's.

St. Peter's was founded by German immigrants, who erected the first Roman Catholic church in McKeesport in 1846 at the corner of Seventh and Market streets.

The church currently being torn down dates from 1875. Construction took two years. Demolition is taking a lot less time.

A declining number of worshipers --- and a declining number of Catholic priests --- led to the elimination of St. Peter's as an independent parish. In 1993, it merged with Holy Trinity, St. Mary's German, and Sacred Heart on Shaw Avenue to form St. Martin de Porres parish.

But the population of the Mon Valley and the number of priests have both continued to dwindle. In two-thousand-seven, the Saint Peter's worship site was closed for good.

And in 2010, St. Martin de Porres parish was merged again, this time with St. Pius V parish and St. Mary Czechostowa, both on Versailles Avenue.

At that time, church council and the parish's pastor decided to tear down the vacant Holy Trinity and St. Peter's buildings.

Venerated objects were removed from both buildings prior to demolition. And parts of the pipe organs have been incorporated into a new instrument at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Ross Township, north of Pittsburgh.

No development plans have been announced for either the Holy Trinity or St. Peter's site. Some artifacts from the churches were transferred to the new Corpus Christi parish, which uses the former St. Mary's on Versailles avenue.

Soon, those artifacts --- and many memories --- will be all that remains of St. Peter's, one of the oldest Catholic churches west of the Allegheny mountains.

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