St. Patrick's Catholic Church is a parish of 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 ...

. The church is located in northwest

Jackson County, Iowa Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,485. The county seat is Maquoketa. History The county was formed on December 21, 1837, and named after US President Andrew Jackson. I ...

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 ...

in an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Butler Township called Garryowen. It 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 1992.

History

The area known as Garryowen was settled by Irish immigrants from

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

and

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

in 1838-1839. The parish was founded by the Rev.

Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, Order of Preachers, OP (November 4, 1806 – February 23, 1864) was a pioneer Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic missionary priest who helped bring the Church to the Iowa-Illinois-Wisconsin tri-stat ...

, OP in 1840. At that time there were about 100 Catholics in the area. Three years later there were 600 Catholics, and the parish supported a school. with The first church building was a log structure, which was built by parishioners. Bishop

Mathias Loras Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras (August 30, 1792 – February 19, 1858) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest in the United States who served as the first Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque, Bishop of Dubuque, in what would become ...

contributed $600 from the

Society for the Propagation of the Faith The Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Latin: ''Propagandum Fidei'') is an international association coordinating assistance for Catholic missionary priests, brothers, and nuns in mission areas. The society was founded in Lyon, France, in ...

towards its construction. Six other parishes were created from St. Patrick's. St. Mathias in

Cascade Cascade, or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science * Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei ** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...

, which at one time had been divided into the two parishes of St. Martin's and St. Mary's; St. Joseph's in

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. Bellevue or Belle Vue may refer to: Places Australia * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales Canada * Bellevue, Alberta * Bellevue, Newfoundlan ...

; St. Peter's in Temple Hill; Assumption in Sylvia Switch; St. Aloysius in South Garryowen, and Sacred Heart in Fillmore. St. Patrick's is the second oldest parish and it has the oldest church building in the Dubuque Archdiocese, and it is the oldest Catholic rural parish in Iowa.

Architecture

The present church was built in 1854, minus the tower. It was completed about 1875. Master builder J. Boland is credited with designing the church. The person who designed the tower is unknown, but it is similar in design to

Dubuque 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 ...

architect

Fridolin Heer Fridolin Heer (July 30, 1834 – September 19, 1910) was a Switzerland, Swiss-born and trained architecture, architect who immigrated to the United States in 1864 and set up a practice in Dubuque, Iowa shortly thereafter. He was joined in his prac ...

's at St. Lawrence Church in Otter Creek. The stone for the church was quarried south of the church, and the lime for the mortar was

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

ed nearby. The rectangular structure measures with a projecting tower on the main facade. The tower is capped by an octagon-shaped

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

, also of stone, and a

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. Spire ...

. The structure is six

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

long, and there is a Gothic arched window in each bay. The main facade provides a symmetrical arraignment of three bays with an entrance portal in each bay.

References

External links

St. Thomas Aquinas Pastorate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's Church-Garryowen Religious organizations established in 1840 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1854 Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque Churches in Jackson County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Jackson County, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Irish-American culture in Iowa 1840 establishments in Iowa Territory 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States