St. Louis Day

The parish this feast honors was built up by Claude Marie Dubuis, later the second Catholic bishop of Texas. Arriving in the winter of 1847, he took the Castroville pastorate as his first assignment, and his ministry reached D'Hanis, Vandenburg, Quihi, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg; he often rode on horseback through Comanche country, and he was captured four times. When he left for San Antonio in 1851 he left a growing St. Louis parish and a church and rectory built mainly with his own hands. He is credited with developing Castroville's distinctive Alsatian style of building.

What the plaque says

St. Louis Day Since as early as 1847 residents of Castroville have conducted a community holiday on or about the 25th of August--the Catholic observacne of the Feast of St. Louis. Local tradition recalls that early processions escorted clergy from the priests' house adjacent to St. Louis Church, with clanging of anvils and the blare of the community band. Through the years a picnic became traditional on the church grounds following High Mass. Before the festivities, men smoked sausage and pit-barbecued beef. Women prepared potato salad, cabbage slaw, and desserts. An evening dance in a local establishment ended the day-long celebration. The St. Louis Society, founded in 1875, traditionally organized the event. Since 1889 the celebration has raised funds for the benefit of the Parish church and school. After the 1920s, the picnic and dance were held at Wernette's Garden. That site (4 blocks NNW) was donated to the parish and renamed Koenig Park in 1949. The dance pavilion there was erected in 1953. The celebration is now held annually on the Sunday nearest August 25. The procession begins at the church after Mass, and winds through the city to Koenig Park for the picnic lunch and evening dance. Texas Sesquicentinnial 1836-1986.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Mission Concepción — 23 mi
  A 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.
• King William Historic District — 24 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.

More markers nearby

• General Wool and the Chihuahua Road — steps away
• Alsatians of Texas — steps away
• Moye — steps away
• First County Courthouse — steps away