Saint Patrick's Church (Dubuque, Iowa)
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Saint Patrick's Church is a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
parish in the
Archdiocese of Dubuque The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Dubuque () 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. The Diocese of Dubuque was erected in 1837 and ...
, and is located at 15th and Iowa Streets,
Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 59,667 at the 2020 United States census. The city lies along the Mississippi River at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a region ...
,
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The church and
rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...
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 distr ...
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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1986. St. Patrick's Church is located two blocks away from
St. Mary's Church St. Mary's Church, St. Mary the Virgin's Church, St. Mary Church, Saint Mary Church, or other variations on the name, is a commonly used name for specific churches of various Christian denominations. Notable uses of the term may refer to: Albania ...
. 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 Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras (August 30, 1792 – February 19, 1858) was a French Catholic priest in the United States who served as the first Bishop of Dubuque, in what would become the state of Iowa. He was the first president of Spring Hill Coll ...
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 A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...
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 () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
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

St. Patrick's Church was designed by Dubuque architect John Keenan in the
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
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 ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...
. 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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
es and each bay contains a paired
lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...
. 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 French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...
. The original
porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...
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 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