The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is a historic

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 ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

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 district ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

, U.S. A parish church in the

Diocese of St. Augustine The Diocese of St. Augustine is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church, located in the U.S. state of Florida. It is a suffragan diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami, covering much of North Florida, including t ...

, it represents Jacksonville's oldest Catholic congregation. The current building, dating to 1910, was added to the U.S.

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 ...

in 1992 as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, and was named a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

in 2013. It is located at 121 East Duval Street; its current pastor is Very Reverend Blair Gaynes.

History

The congregation was established in about 1845 as a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

of the Catholic parish of Savannah in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, and the first church building was constructed by 1847. Immaculate Conception was designated its own parish in 1854, but the original building was destroyed by Union forces during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. A second building was planned shortly after Jacksonville became part of the newly created Catholic

in 1870, and was completed in 1874. This was destroyed along with most of downtown Jacksonville in the

Great Fire of 1901 The Great Fire of 1901 was a conflagration that occurred in Jacksonville, Florida on May 3, 1901. It was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the third largest urban fire in the U.S., next to the Great Chicago Fire, and the 1906 Sa ...

. The current building was designed in 1905 by architect M. H. Hubbard, also the designer of

Bethel Baptist Institutional Church The Bethel Church (formerly Bethel Baptist Institutional Church) is a historically-black Baptist megachurch in Jacksonville, Florida, in the United States. Founded in 1838, it is the city's oldest Baptist congregation. The attendance is 12 ...

. Construction began in 1907 and completed on December 8, 1910, when the building was dedicated. The structure is an example of

Late Gothic Revival architecture 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 ...

, considered one of the best such examples in Florida, featuring a cruciform floor plan,

pointed arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earlie ...

es,

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

on the windows,

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

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s, high

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

s, and a high

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

on the interior. The building's

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

, topped by a gold-plated cross, was the highest point in the city for three years until the

Heard National Bank Building The Heard National Bank Building was a building in Jacksonville, Florida, built in 1913. It was the tallest building in Florida for over a decade. It was demolished in 1981 and is now the site of the Bank of America Tower. History Construction ...

was finished in 1913. In 1979, the church received ''solemn dedication'', meaning the structure cannot be demolished willfully or converted to another purpose besides a church. On December 30, 1992, it was listed in the U.S.

. Beginning in 2005 the church sought designation as a

from the

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments it, Dicastero per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti , type = Dicastery , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , p ...

due to its history. The request was renewed in 2013 by Bishop

Felipe de Jesús Estévez Felipe de Jesús Estévez (born February 5, 1946) is a Cuban-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who was bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida from 2011 to 2022. Estévez previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdioc ...

and granted; the designation was announced on August 15, 2013.

References

External links

Official website

Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs

Duval County listings
{{Jacksonville attractions Basilica churches in Florida Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Augustine Churches in Jacksonville, Florida History of Jacksonville, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Jacksonville, Florida Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Downtown Jacksonville 1845 establishments in Florida Roman Catholic churches completed in 1910 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States