St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Parish (Streator, Illinois) is the first Catholic parish established by Slovak immigrants in America. It was founded ca. 1883; its first priest was the Hungarian educated Rev. Joseph Kassalko, who arrived in 1884. Under the direction of Rev. Kassalko's successor, Rev. Ervin Gelhoff, the St. Stephen's School, run by Franciscan Sisters, opened in the fall of 1888, the first Slovak school in the United States. Rev. Gelhoff, together with Rev. Stephen Furdek, later helped to found the First Catholic Slovak Union, in 1890. A new church was built in 1906, a new school in 1912, a new rectory in 1926, and a convent in 1958.