Main St. Sanctuary St. Francis de Sales · MCMXX
Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania

St. Francis
de Sales

Built in 1920.
Bought in 2025.
Follow the remodel & book a stay soon.

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Our vision
“Our vision for St. Francis de Sales is to fully restore this stunning 1920 Catholic church while honoring its historic architecture and the community it served for nearly 90 years.”

We plan to convert the interior into a single family residence and short term rental, allowing people from all over to experience this incredible piece of Coal Country Pennsylvania history. Our goal is not just to save a building — it’s to breathe new life into a landmark that holds deep meaning for the Mount Carbon community and everyone who ever walked through its doors.

Sam & Mike Kinsel
Intro video

Start here

A walk through the building, before we touched anything. If you only watch one, watch this one.

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What’s in there

Things you only find out by standing in it

The long brick side of the nave, above the stream that runs beneath the site01

The stream tunnel

A stream runs beneath the building through a tunnel the original builders dug by hand, so the church could sit exactly here.

The barrel-vault ceiling of the main hall02

A walkable vault

The barrel-vault ceiling is metal lathe and concrete. It is solid enough to walk on top of, and it is intact.

The main hall from the floor, thirty feet up to the vault03

Thirty-foot ceilings

Roughly thirty feet, floor to vault, across the whole main hall. Photos do not really carry it.

The original cross-shaped door hardware, up close04

Cross-shaped hardware

The original door hardware is cast in the shape of a cross. It is still on the doors and it is staying.

The bell tower over the front entrance05

The bell

Still hanging in the tower where it has always been. We would like to hear it again.

An arched stained glass window set in brick06

A century of glass

The stained glass came through a hundred years, a closure and a decade of vacancy without being lost.

Hover over or tap a card to see it

The gutted main hall with barrel vault and stained glass

The main hall, spring 2026

Where it’s going

A home in the front, rooms in the back

The roof is already done. From here the front half of the church becomes one open communal room with a kitchen built around a big island, and the back half becomes two floors of bedrooms with a catwalk balcony looking out over the hall.

CompleteNew roof, front to back
NextCommunal hall and kitchen, hosting 20 to 40
ThenTwo storeys of bedrooms, catwalk balcony
See the full plan
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