National Register of Historic Places

Church of the Assumption-Catholic

St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota
Listed
February 10, 1975
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
75001008

About this property

The Church of the Assumption Catholic Church was dedicated in 1874 and is the oldest existing church in Saint Paul. It is located at 51 West Seventh Street, in downtown Saint Paul. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The parish was founded in 1856 by Bishop Joseph Crétin. At that time, immigrants from Germany were arriving, and the single Catholic parish in St. Paul mainly served French and Irish settlers, with services in Latin and sermons in their own languages. The first building was a plain stone structure with a wooden steeple on West Ninth Street. The founding pastor was Father George Keller. After Fr. Keller was transferred to Faribault, Minnesota in 1858, staffing of the parish was met by priests and brothers from St. John's Abbey (Order of St. Benedict) in Collegeville, Minnesota. By 1869 the parish had outgrown the small chapel and a new building was urgently needed. The church's construction was ordered by then-Archbishop John Ireland, who wanted the city's growing Catholic German immigrant population to have a parish of their own. It was built in a plain Romanesque style of Lake Superior limestone by German Catholics, and is said to have been modeled after the Ludwigskirche in Munich. The architect, Joseph Reidel, was a court architect for the Wittelsbach family in Bavaria, Germany. It was built, according to the plans of the Bavarian Joseph Reidel, by the Germans in 1869–1874 in a neo-Romanesque, stone-washed style of Lake Superior. The interior design of the church has remained substantially unchanged since the late 19th century. The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the high altar came from the first church. There are shrines to Thérèse of Lisieux and Maria-Hilf; altars for the Blessed Mother and Saint John the Baptist, Saint Joseph, and Saint Lawrence; tapestries of the Good Samaritan and the Sts. Peter and Clemens Society; and other works of art. As the parish grew, five daughter churches were spun off: Sacred Heart, St. Francis de Sales, St. Matthew's,

Location

51 W. 9th St.
St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota
44.94777, -93.09909

Categories

ARCHITECTURERELIGION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

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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Nearby Historic Sites

Assumption School
Industrial
0 mi
Mickey's Diner
Industrial
0.1 mi
Fitzpatrick Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Hamm Building
Industrial
0.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was Church of the Assumption-Catholic listed on the National Register?

Church of the Assumption-Catholic was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1975.

What type of historic resource is Church of the Assumption-Catholic?

Church of the Assumption-Catholic is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Church of the Assumption-Catholic?

The period of significance for Church of the Assumption-Catholic is recorded as the industrial era.

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