Site of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As Fort Worth grew from a frontier settlement in the 1870s, its scattered Catholics first worshipped in private homes served by traveling priests. In 1876 the Diocese of Galveston sent a young Irish priest, Father Thomas Loughrey, to organize a parish, and within months a frame church named for the Polish Jesuit Saint Stanislaus Kostka held its first High Mass on this site. The parish soon opened a school staffed by religious sisters, and by 1892 had built a larger church nearby, while the original building served the school until it was removed around 1908.
Why it matters
The founding of this parish and its school marks the arrival of organized Catholic community and education in a booming frontier town, part of the broader story of faith and schooling taking root across the settling West.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Father Thomas Loughrey
- · Bishop Claude Dubuis
- · Father Jean Marie Guyot
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Saint Ignatius Academy Building
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth's first Catholic school, St. Ignatius Academy, was founded in 1885 by the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur, who held their first classes in a purchased house. In 1889 they completed this four-story limestone building, designed by J. J. Kane in the Victorian Institutional style, to serve as classrooms and chapel. Classes continued here until 1962.
John Peter Smith
Fort Worth, TX
A Kentuckian who reached Fort Worth in 1853, John Peter Smith worked as teacher, clerk, surveyor, and attorney before the Civil War. Though he opposed secession, he raised a company of Tarrant County men for the Confederacy, rode with Sibley's Brigade into New Mexico and the recapture of Galveston, and was badly wounded in Louisiana. Returning home, he helped build the city—organizing a bank, gas company, and street railway, donating land for parks, cemeteries, and a hospital, and as mayor in 1882 founding the school and water systems.
Fort Worth Library
Fort Worth, TX
At the turn of the 20th century, cities across America won free public libraries by tapping the fortune of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who gave away tens of millions to build them. When a Fort Worth woman asked him for "the price of a good cigar," he answered with $50,000, and paired with local gifts of money and land, the city's first library opened on this site in 1901. Its first librarian was also a leader in the parks and art movements of the era, reflecting how libraries anchored civic and cultural life.
Atelier Building
Fort Worth, TX
Developer Thomas S. Weaver raised this brick building around 1905 and named it "Atelier," French for an artist's studio. Over the decades it housed architects and contractors, a restaurant, and financial firms, including the banking house of noted Fort Worth benefactor W. R. Edrington. In 1936 it briefly served as the temporary home of the Carnegie Library.