Saint Patrick's Church is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish in the

Archdiocese of Dubuque The Archdiocese of Dubuque ( la, Archidiœcesis Dubuquensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counti ...

, and is located at 15th and Iowa Streets,

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...

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 ...

. The church and

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

were included as

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

in the Jackson Park Historic District that 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. St. Patrick's Church is located two blocks away from St. Mary's Church. The reason for the close proximity of the two parishes was that St. Mary was originally built for service to German families of Dubuque, and St. Patrick's provided services for the Irish settlers to Dubuque.

History

The parish was founded in 1852 as a mission of St. Raphael Cathedral. The parish buildings were built on land that

Bishop Mathias Loras Mathias Loras (August 30, 1792 – February 19, 1858) was an immigrant French priest to the United States and the first bishop of the Dubuque Diocese in what would become the state of Iowa. Early life and ministry Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras was ...

had purchased when it was offered for sale by the Federal government. Originally, a wood-frame building was used as a church building, and was located at what is now the front of the rectory. The first church was dedicated by Bishop Loras in 1853. St. Patrick's became an independent parish five years later when the Rev. Patrick McCabe was assigned as the first resident pastor. 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 ...

of the present brick church was laid in 1877, and the building dedicated on August 15, 1878. In 1928, the Rev. J.J. Hanley remodeled and enlarged the church. St. Patrick Church was originally built for service to the Irish settlers of Dubuque and while the parish has maintained a healthy respect for its Irish heritage over its many years of service, the parish now specializes in service to the

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

residents of Dubuque. The parish offers a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Mass on Sundays, and the offices of Hispanic ministry are also located at the parish. From 1995 to 2008 a pastoral administrator led the St. Patrick's congregation. During that same time, from 1999 to 2010, St. Patrick's was clustered with St. Mary's Parish. St. Mary's closed in May 2010 and St. Patrick's was clustered with St. Raphael's Cathedral at that time.

Architecture

Saint Patrick's Church - Dubuque, Iowa 02

St. Patrick's Church was designed by Dubuque architect John Keenan in the

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. It is a brick structure built on a Dubuque stone foundation. It features a central tower that is capped with a crown. The main entrance has been altered in subsequent years, but it fits in with the older structure. The church building is seven bays long with the seventh bay on the south end forming a sort of

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

. The bays are divided by brick

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es and each bay contains a paired

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

. The interior is divided into three naves. The rectory was built in the 1880s to the rear of the church. It is a three-story brick residence capped with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

. The original

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

has been replaced with a single-story addition. Other additions have also been added on the west side of the house. A school building, no longer extant, was built immediately west of the church. It was replaced by a three-story structure in 1951 on the corner of West 15th and Main Streets. The parish sold the building in 2006. It is not considered an historic structure.

Schools

St. Patrick's Parish had a parochial school for boys established after 1870, while girls attended St. Joseph Academy. St. Patrick's School merged with St. Mary's Catholic School to form Downtown Catholic School in 1982. The organization

Holy Family Catholic Schools Holy Family Catholic Schools (HFCS) is a Roman Catholic school system based in Dubuque, Iowa (USA). Holy Family, which operates schools in eastern Dubuque County, is a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque. As of the 2011–2012 scho ...

took control of Downtown Catholic and other Dubuque-area Catholic schools in 2001. Downtown Catholic and Sacred Heart – Holy Trinity School became St. Francis School in 2002, and St. Francis closed in 2004. Four Oaks Family and Children Services bought the school building in 2006.

References

External links

St. Raphael-St. Patrick website
{{NRHP in Dubuque, Iowa Religious organizations established in 1852 1852 establishments in Iowa Irish-American culture in Iowa Roman Catholic churches completed in 1878 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

Patrick Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Dubuque, Iowa Historic district contributing properties in Iowa