Site of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church

The Handbook of Texas says the congregation voted to name its next church for Saint Patrick. Architect J. J. Kane designed the Gothic Revival building in native limestone, and Bishop Thomas Brennan of Dallas dedicated it on July 10, 1892. In 1889 the Belgian Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur finished a three-story French Empire building for St. Ignatius Academy, their boarding school for young women. St. Patrick became co-cathedral in 1953 and diocesan seat in 1969, and joined the National Register in 1985.

What the plaque says

Site of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church Catholics in Fort Worth began meeting together for regular worship services by 1875. They met in private homes, and were served by traveling priests. In 1876 Bishop Claude Dubuis of the Diocese of Galveston assigned a young Irish priest, Father Thomas Loughrey, to establish a parish in Fort Worth. In July 1876 the Diocese purchased two lots at this site for a church to be named for Polish Jesuit Saint Stanislaus Kostka. Within three months, on October 29, 1876, Father Laughry said the first High Mass in the frame structure. He continued to serve the church until 1884, when Father Jean Marie Guyot was assigned as Pastor. The church opened a Catholic School in the parish. Classes initially were taught by Father Loughrey and the Sisters of Mercy. After 1885 the school was operated by the Sisters of St. Mary. By 1885 plans were underway for a new church structure. Completed in 1892, it was named for Saint Patrick. The original Saint Stanislaus building became part of the school. After serving the parish for over three decades, it was removed between 1908 and 1909 to make way for a new parish rectory. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 0.6 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.1 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.3 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 3.0 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• John Peter Smith — steps away
• Hell's Half Acre — steps away
• Ephraim Merrill Daggett — steps away
• Fort Worth Library — steps away