St. Patrick Catholic Church is a parish of the Catholic Church in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

, in the

Diocese of Jackson The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, in the southern United States of America. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes the northern and central parts of the state of Mississippi, an area o ...

. Its historic church, located at 2614 Davis Street, was designed by

Alfred Zucker Alfred J. R. E. Zucker (January 23, 1852 – August 2, 1913)
Guillermo ...

. Since 1995, St. Patrick's, the historically African-American parish of St. Joseph, and St. Joseph of Cupertino at Naval Air Station Meridian have operated as the Catholic Community of Meridian, sharing pastoral and administrative staff. Catholic missionaries from Paulding County arrived in 1853, and the community build its first church on the site in 1866, with 12 families on the roll. Its first resident parish priest, Fr. Louis Vally, arrived in 1868. Under his leadership the parish grew considerably, starting its

parochial school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...

in 1873 and acquiring land for its convent in 1877. It was also during Vally's tenure that the current

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 ...

was built, in 1886.

Church

The church was designed by Alfred J.R.E. Zucker, a German-American architect then based in

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

. The church is a modified cruciform structure of brick. At its entrance is a four-story square tower with a round arch

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

. Its lancet stained glass windows are set in compound pointed arches in slightly recessed bays. It added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

School

St. Patrick School was established in 1873, and housed in a dedicated facility adjacent to the church. It was staffed by the Sisters of Mercy for much of its history. In 1924, its separate boys' and girls' schools were merged into a single coeducational K–12 school. It is today a preK–6 institution.

References

Roman Catholic churches in Mississippi Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Gothic Revival church buildings in Mississippi Roman Catholic churches completed in 1886 Churches in Meridian, Mississippi National Register of Historic Places in Lauderdale County, Mississippi 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson {{Mississippi-church-stub