Holy Rosary Catholic Parish

Mark Lemmon, who designed the 1954 church, was born in Gainesville in 1889 and trained in geology at the University of Texas and in architecture at MIT. Serving with the engineers in France in World War I, he came to admire French Gothic architecture, and it marked his work for the rest of his career. In partnership with Roscoe DeWitt from 1921 to 1927 he designed Sunset and Woodrow Wilson high schools in Dallas, buildings at Southern Methodist University and Highland Park Methodist Church's sanctuary. Later he designed eleven schools in Port Arthur, each in a different style.

What the plaque says

Holy Rosary Catholic Parish IN 1895, ARABELLA DORIGAN DONATED TWO LOTS FOR THE BUILDING OF A CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ROSENBERG. MASS WAS HELD PERIODICALLY IN OTHER BUILDINGS UNTIL 1911, WHEN A WOODEN CHURCH AND RECTORY WERE BUILT AT AVENUE H AND 6TH STREET. A FIRE DESTROYED THE CHURCH IN 1924, AND A NEW MISSION STYLE STUCCO CHURCH WAS BUILT IN 1925. IN THE 1950s THE STRUCTURES WERE DEMOLISHED, AND THE PROPERTY WAS SOLD. THE THIRD CHURCH, DESIGNED BY MARK LEMMON IN THE GOTHIC REVIVAL STYLE, WAS BUILT WEST OF TOWN ON 25 ACRES DONATED BY JULIUS AND FRANCES GUBBELS AND WAS DEDICATED IN 1954. OVER THE YEARS A SCHOOL, STARTED IN THE 1930s, A RECTORY, A BELL TOWER, A GROTTO, A PARISH LIFE CENTER AND OTHER STRUCTURES HAVE BEEN BUILT AT THIS SITE. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 18 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• The Menil Collection — 28 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 28 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 28 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Rosenberg — 0.5 mi
• Trone-Ray-Lane House — 0.6 mi
• Robinowitz Brothers — 0.7 mi
• Fort Bend Telephone Company — 0.8 mi