The Cathedral of Saint Andrew in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, United States, is a historic church and the oldest place of continuing worship in the city. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock. The property is located at the corner of South Louisiana Street and West 7th Street in downtown

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

History

The Rev. Peter Donnelly from the Diocese of St. Louis celebrated the first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

in Little Rock in a room over Dugan's Store at 2nd and Main Streets in 1830. As the congregation grew they acquired a building for their use on East Markham near Third Street. The Rev. Joseph Richard Bole and Father Paris were sent to Little Rock to build a permanent church building in 1839 on the property where the Arcade Building was located on Louisiana between Sixth and Seventh Streets. Known as the Old French Church, it was dedicated by Bishop Mathias Loras of the Diocese of Dubuque, Iowa in 1841. The Diocese of Little Rock was established by Pope Gregory XVI on November 28, 1843, with the Most Rev.

Andrew Byrne Andrew J. Byrne (1802 – June 10, 1862) was an Irish-born American Catholic priest, who became the first bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas from 1844 until his death in 1862. Biography Early life Andrew Byrne was born in 1802 ...

as the first bishop. Bishop Byrne established the first St. Andrew's Cathedral at Second and Center Streets in 1845. As the congregation grew a new cathedral was needed. The cornerstone for the present cathedral was laid by Bishop Edward Fitzgerald on July 7, 1878. The church was dedicated on November 27, 1881. It was designed by Little Rock architect Thomas Harding and cost $470,000 to build. The tallest tower on the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

of the building was completed in 1887. A

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

struck downtown Little Rock in 1950 and toppled the cross on top of the tower. It also destroyed two of the

stained glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. The present rectory was built in 1966. St. Andrew's Cathedral was 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 ...

in 1986.

Architecture

The Cathedral of St. Andrew is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style structure that was built of native

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. The church measures in length and its

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is wide. The façade features two towers, the tallest of which is crowned with a spire and rises above the ground. The interior is finished in Southern yellow pine and features a marble

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganis ...

that is decorated with onyx and other precious stones.

References

External links

Official Cathedral Site

Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock Official Site
{{NRHP Religious organizations established in 1845 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1881 Churches in Little Rock, Arkansas Andrew, Little Rock Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock Gothic Revival church buildings in Arkansas Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Little Rock, Arkansas 1845 establishments in Arkansas 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links