The Kaletta Statuary Company (also known at various points in its history as the Kaletta Company; A. T. Kaletta & Company, and the Kaletta Statuary and Church Goods Company) was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1876 by the German immigrant Andrew T. Kaletta (1847-1916). The business was long located at 3715-21 South California Avenue, in the southwest part of the city. Kaletta himself was trained in the fabrication of cast and painted religious statuary, and the manufacture of such figures long remained the company's core concern. According to a history of local businesses published ca. 1908, Kaletta was founded ". . .solely for the purpose of promoting ecclesiastical or church works of art. . . .[r]eligious statuary and monumental work, both for exterior and interior use, is made and can be furnished by this firm in a number of different substances. Also pictorial and tapestry paintings of religious nature and marble work in domestic or foreign marbles." In 1914 leadership of the company passed to Kaletta's three sons, Andrew C., Waldemar, and Alfred, as president, treasurer, and secretary, respectively. In the twentieth century Kaletta's activities expanded to include the design of all manner of church appointments and furniture: candlesticks, lamps, tabernacles, altars, baptismal fonts, vestment cases, choir stalls, and pews, among other products. Some of these items were manufactured by Kaletta's artisans. Others were designed at Kaletta but manufactured by subcontracters. As Kaletta's naturalistic style of statuary fell out of fashion towards mid-century, church furnishings seem to have become the company's lifeline. It oversaw the design and installation of Roman Catholic church interiors in St Louis and elsewhere, including St. Mary Magdalene and St. Gabriel's. (The company dealt with churches of all denominations, but the core of its clientele was always Roman Catholic). At the height of its prosperity ca. 1940, Kaletta did business across the central U. S. The company closed its doors in 1969.