Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic
About this property
The Basilica of Saint Mary is a Catholic minor basilica and co-cathedral located on Hennepin Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. Dedicated in 1913, Saint Mary became the first American basilica when Pope Pius XI raised it to the status in 1926. The Basilica of Saint Mary is the co-cathedral for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The predecessor to the Basilica of Saint Mary was the Church of the Immaculate Conception. It was dedicated in 1871 on 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue North in Minneapolis. At that time, Minneapolis was part of the Diocese of Saint Paul and the cathedral for the diocese was the third Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Church of Immaculate Conception was surrounded by warehouses. Given the increasing population of Minneapolis, Archbishop John Ireland of what is now the Archdiocese of Saint Paul, announced plans in 1903 for the Pro-Cathedral of Saint Mary. It would replace the Immaculate Conception Church and be in a different location. Technically, the official name of the new structure was Immaculate Conception Church, but the archdiocese called it the Pro-Cathedral of Saint Mary from the beginning. The next year, Ireland also announced plans to replace the Cathedral of Saint Paul with a larger building. In 1905, the department store owner Lawrence S. Donaldson donated a one-block land parcel on Hennepin Avenue near Loring Park in Minneapolis to the archdiocese for the new pro-cathedral. Ireland awarded the design contract for St. Mary's to the Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, who was also designing the new Cathedral of Saint Paul. Masqueray used a Beaux-Arts style for the pro-cathedral. The groundbreaking for the Pro-Cathedral of Saint Mary was held on August 7, 1907, with foundation construction continuing through May 1908. The cornerstone for the new pro-cathedral was laid on May 31, 1908; the ceremony included 30,000 participants, 20 bishops, 300 priests and seminarians from the Saint Paul Seminary, and 500 cadets from the College of Saint Thomas in St. Paul. As construction on St. Mary's and the Cathedral of Saint Paul progressed, American Architect magazine commented on the two projects: "in extent and splendor they promise to surpass anything yet attempted in ecclesiastical work in the United States." The first mass celebrated in the Pro-Cathedral of Saint Mary was on May 31, 1914. The interior decoration, windows, and plaster work were delayed due to the American entry into World War I in 1917. The structure was dedicated in 1921. After the interior was finally completed in 1925, it was formally named the Pro-cathedral of Saint Mary.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic listed on the National Register?
Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 1975.
What type of historic resource is Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic?
Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic?
The period of significance for Basilica of St. Mary-Catholic is recorded as the industrial era.
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