The Annunciation Church is a Catholic church located at the corner of Texas Avenue and Crawford Street in
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.
History
Annunciation Church sprung from the congregation at St. Vincent's, Houston's first Catholic church. In 1866, Father Joseph Querat and
Galveston Bishop Claude M. Debuis believed the congregation was outgrowing the old building and started planning for a new one. The congregation chose the name for the planned building, "Church of the Annunciation." The original architect is unknown, but was dedicated on September 10, 1871. Nicholas Clayton altered the building, adding the bell tower twin towers in 1884.
[Sister Mary Brendan O'Donnell, "CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION, HOUSTON," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ivc01), accessed November 11, 2014. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.]
The property is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
The church remains Houston's oldest existing church and, as such, the property was eventually faced with a foundation problem. A large void had developed underneath the church's southwest corner and, symptomatically, the foundation subsided. Through a polymer injection process work at Annunciation Catholic Church was completed in two days with minimal disruption to mass and parishioners.
See also
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Harris County, Texas
References
External links
*
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston
{{National Register of Historic Places in Texas
1860s establishments in Texas
1869 establishments in Texas
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1869
Buildings and structures in Houston
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
National Register of Historic Places in Houston
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
Roman Catholic churches in Houston
Romanesque Revival architecture in Texas
Romanesque Revival church buildings in the United States
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States