Video News Story: Admiring the 1859 Immaculate Conception Cathedral
Brownsville, TX.
By Marlane Rodriguez, Originally broadcast by KVEO-TV, Brownsville, Texas
(Re-posted with permission)
BROWNSVILLE, Texas – It started as a small wooden church in 1850 built by one of the first Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
It was the site of the first Texas Oblate Seminary and was a haven for priests fleeing revolutions in Mexico.
In 1859 the Immaculate Conception Cathedral was finally complete.
The priest who took over the construction of the church was an architect in France, which explains its Gothic Revival style, made possible by the donations of generous parishioners.
“He designed this Gothic feature church which is very unique on the border,” said Eugene Fernandez, Commissioner of Cameron County Historical Commission. “If you could look at the features that are in this particular cathedral, they are very sophisticated for the time.”
The church was constructed with over 250,000 clay bricks made from the village of Santa Rosalia, 3 miles away from the old town site of Brownsville, which helped it withstand great turbulence.