Historical Marker
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church
Saspamco, Wilson County · Texas
Erected 2015
Saspamco took its name from the initials of the San Antonio Sewer Pipe Manufacturing Company, which around 1901 began using the area's red clay for tile products. A loading switch on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway became the center of the town, which by 1915 had 125 residents, Baptist and Catholic churches, three grocers, two general stores, a hotel, a cotton gin and a dairy. In the late 1930s the pipe plant employed about 150 people and could turn out 120 tons of sewer pipe a day. Saspamco had 443 residents in 1990.
What the plaque says
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church Most of Saspamco's early population was derived from Mexican immigrant laborers employed by the San Antonio Sewer Pipe Works Company. The laborers of the sewer pipe factory and other local residents wanted a place of worship. The land for a church was donated by Lorenzo and Victoria Gonzales, and in 1923, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Catholic Church was erected by the local laborers using sand and gravel from the Gonzales sand pit and water from their well. The first mass, officiated by the Bishop Arthur Drossaerts, was celebrated on November 13, 1924. In 1955, the ladies of the community formed the altar society of OLPH Catholic Church. As the backbone of the church, the society sponsored annual fundraising dinners and festivals. Proceeds were always designated for the upkeep of the church and religious education programs. The annual festivals were an opportunity for the predominantly Hispanic community to gather in fellowship. The church conducted baptisms, first communions, weddings, funerals, confirmations, Virgen de Guadalupe celebrations, Christmas pageants and the Passion of Christ productions. In 1969, Father Pedro Parra led the remodel of the church and a new church hall. The hall was used for religious education classes and parish council meetings. Since its creation, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church has continued to contribute to the ethical and religious formation of the Hispanic population in the area. (2015)
Where it stands
29.23223, -98.29509 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 11 miThe southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
- Mission San Juan — 12 miThe mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
- San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 14 miFour working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
- Mission Concepción — 16 miA stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.