The Cathedral Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe (Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe) is the cathedral church of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

, Texas. The structure dates from the late 19th centuryCathedral Santuario de Guadalupe

History
. Retrieved on 29 April 2007. and is located in the Arts District of

downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has tradit ...

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 ...

. The church oversees the second largest Catholic church membership in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Its average Sunday attendance is 11,200.

History

Background

Dallas Cathedral interior during a concert intermission

In 1869, Dallas's first Catholic parish, Sacred Heart Church, was established by the Bishop of

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. The church was built in 1872 and was located at Bryan and Ervay Streets, near present-day St. Paul Station. In 1890, Dallas was established as a diocese, and Sacred Heart became the diocesan cathedral of Dallas with Bishop Thomas Brennan acting as the first bishop. Along with Dallas' tremendous growth at the time, the parish soon outgrew its church building, and the need for a new cathedral arose.

Construction

The property on which the current cathedral is now located was purchased for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

30,000, which adjusted for inflation, is equivalent to over $600,000 in 2007. The

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

for the cathedral was laid June 17, 1898 and the church was formally dedicated on October 26, 1902.

Consolidation

As the

Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchore ...

grew through the early 20th century, other diocesan parishes were built in neighboring suburbs, decreasing Sacred Heart's attendance. However, by the 1960s the neighboring Our Lady of Guadalupe parish had outgrown its facilities. Bilingual_sign_at_Dallas_Cathedral

The parish, located on Harwood Street, was established in 1914 and primarily served

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

. Bishop Thomas Tschoepe of Sacred Heart invited Our Lady of Guadalupe to merge with Sacred Heart, and by 1975, the Guadalupe church on Harwood closed following the churches' consolidation. On December 12, 1977, Sacred Heart Cathedral was renamed Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe—"the Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe." This reflects the large Spanish-speaking proportion of the congregation, so that the congregation now has masses and various programs in Spanish and English, as well as English classes.

Expansion

The cathedral recently underwent a major multi-phase renovation project. As part of the project, a

20 millio
bell tower
housing a 49-bell

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

was constructed. The bell tower was planned by the original architect,

Nicholas J. Clayton Nicholas Joseph Clayton (November 1, 1840 in Cloyne, County Cork – December 9, 1916) was a prominent Victorian era architect in Galveston, Texas. Clayton constructed many grand religious and public buildings in Galveston including the Firs ...

, but had not been built.

References

External links

Official Cathedral SiteRoman Catholic Diocese of Dallas Official Site
{{Downtown Dallas Churches in Dallas Downtown Dallas Religious organizations established in 1869 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1902 Guadalupe, Catedral Santuario de Our Lady of Guadalupe 1869 establishments in Texas 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States