Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

A 1936 county history says that in April 1866 James M. Murphy and Allen Urquhart gave lots on Polk and Lafayette streets to Bishop Claudius M. Dubuis of Galveston for a church and school. Bernard Whitkorn of Nacogdoches held the building contract, helped by George Whitkorn and Tony Hillenkamp, and the church was finished in 1869. In 1870 William H. Ward deeded lots at Lafayette and Vale to Father Giraud, and the church was moved there. Sisters of Charity from Maryland ran a school at Henderson and Market, bought in 1875 by Hebrew Sinai Congregation.

What the plaque says

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church This parish began in 1863 when Father Jean Marie Giraud held mass for Catholic residents of Jefferson. Immaculate Conception grew as a church and by 1867, members completed the first building. In 1869, the church opened a school and the next year moved to the current location. Immaculate Conception soon became a center for East Texas missions, though by 1910, it was also a mission. Under the guidance and leadership of the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Meyer and others, parishioners continued to meet and serve the community. Though a fire destroyed the church in 1992, the parish rebuilt and today remains a spiritual center for Jefferson residents. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Excelsior House Hotel — steps away
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — steps away
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Caddo Lake State Park — 11 mi
  A Civilian Conservation Corps park on the Texas shore of Caddo Lake, where the Caddo told of a lake made by wind-driven water and visitors now paddle Big Cypress Bayou past moss-hung bald cypress.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• The Brooks House — steps away
• First Texas Artificial Gas Plant — steps away
• Sterne Fountain — steps away
• Kahn Saloon — steps away