Historical Marker
St. Therese Catholic Church
Orange, Orange County · Texas
Erected 2001
The mission began as a social club. Our Catholic Heritage, Volume VII, says three Catholic families in Orange united in a St. Joseph's Social Club, from which the Knights of Peter Claver were organized on June 19, 1924, with a Ladies Auxiliary following in 1929. The book has Josephite Fathers from Blessed Sacrament Church in Beaumont visiting a small mission at Orange as early as 1926, and describes the mission as serving Black Catholics. The Knights invited the Beaumont Josephites to say Mass for them.
What the plaque says
St. Therese Catholic Church With roots in the missionary work of the Roman Catholic society of St. Joseph, this parish first gathered for worship in 1924. In that year, Father Alexis la Plante, Josephite pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Beaumont, said mass for three African-American families in Orange and reported it as a promising place for the formal establishment of a black Catholic mission. For the next 12 years, priests from Blessed Sacrament and from Our Mother of Mercy in Beaumont held worship services for the growing congregation in private homes and other rented or borrowed spaces. In 1936, a Boston, Massachusetts, priest donated funds for the construction of a church building in Orange, and it was dedicated in honor of St. Therese, the patron saint of Catholic mission work. Father Michael McCormack served as first resident pastor when a rectory was acquired in 1941. As a result of Orange's booming economy as a center for shipbuilding during World War II, the town's population increased as did the membership at St. Therese. A national street preaching institute was begun in 1943, and in 1945 a school and parish hall were constructed to serve the congregation. Throughout their history, the members of St. Therese church, the second oldest Catholic congregation in the city, have gathered as a community to worship together and to provide assistance to those in need. The parish stands as a significant part of Orange's heritage. (2001)
Where it stands
30.10440, -93.73618 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Stark Museum of Art — 0.8 miA white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
- Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 0.9 miMore than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
- Museum of the Gulf Coast — 20 miPort Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
- Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 miA re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.