National Register Listing

Annunciation Church

1618 Texas Ave., Houston, TX

Annunciation Church, located in downtown Houston, Texas, houses one of the state's oldest continuously active Roman Catholic parishes. Serving as the Mother Church of Houston's Catholic parishes, Annunciation has been also responsible for a number of social innovations and pioneering work in Catholic education in Texas. The building itself, of great architectural importance for its Romanesque detailing, was one of Houston's earliest structures designed by a professional architect.

Annunciation Parish, originally founded as St. Vincent de Paul in 1842, was Houston's first Catholic congregation. Father Timon, St. Vincent's founder, had been encouraged to come to Texas by Count Alphonsede Saligny, the French Charge d'Affaires, to re-establish the Catholic Church after communication with the Archdiocese of Monterrey had been severed by the 1836 Texas Revolution. Father Timon provided Houston with a group of French Vincentian Priests, led by Houston's first Catholic pastor, Father John Lynch, who was an Irishman. They solicited funds from Houston's 300 Catholics and others, and erected a church, blessing it in July of 1842. Father Lynch also "rode circuit," saying mass and performing baptisms in nearby towns and villages.

During the Civil War the priests of St. Vincent's found themselves as divided along secular lines as their parishioners. Father Augustine d'Asti, St. Vincent's wartime pastor, had the difficult task of supervising politically active priests like Father Felix Zoppi, who professed loyalty to the Southern cause and served as a chaplain for the Davis Guards, a confederate regiment. Father d'Asti was also responsible for the actions of Houston's Benedictines, who were largely from the north and who were assigned to the 5th ward's predominately German parishes. The Germans were avowed abolitionists and Houstonians suspected their priests were Union spies.

In 1866, Father Joseph Querat arrived from Lyons, France, to assume the pastorship of St. Vincent's. Finding the old wooden church inadequate for the parish, and Houston's Catholics still divided in political conflicts, Father Querat determined to build a larger church, as a symbol of ecclesiastical and temporal unity. The old Harris County Courthouse was purchased, demolished for its brick and reassembled as the foundations for the new church. Houston newspapers encouraged donations and Father Querat wrote to his province house in Lyons to have French architects draw up plans for the church. The cornerstone was laid on April 25, 1869, and the new church was reconsecrated "Annunciation" in honor of St. Mary's divine revelation. Annunciation was blessed in 1871, but the realities of the post Civil War Southern economy caused modifications of the elaborate French plans. The original design, specifying Corinthian Neo-Classical details, has been abandoned, while the bell tower and sacristy were left unfinished.

In 1870 Father Thomas Hennessy became Annunciation's pastor. Because Houston's Catholic population had greatly increased with Post War immigration, Father Hennessy and Annunciation Parish undertook the founding of several daughter parishes, St. Patrick's, St. Joseph's, St. Nicolas', Sacred Heart, All Saint's and Blessed Sacrament were all created under Father Hennessy's supervision, earning Annunciation the title "Mother Church of Houston." In 1884 Father Hennessy turned all of his efforts toward the preservation of Annunciation itself. The soft brick walls had begun to deteriorate and floor to ceiling cracks had appeared in them. The two towers at the west end of the church were sinking and settling away from the facade. Nicholas Clayton, Galveston's leading architect, was commissioned to redesign the church, preserving as much as was salvageable. Clayton was well-known for his ecclesiastical structures and had some experience in restoration. Among Clayton's many churches, the three most prominent of his works were St. Mary's Cathedral in Galveston (see National Register submission June 18, 1973), Grace Episcopal Church in Galveston (see National Register submission April 3, 1975) and St. Mary's Cathedral in Austin (see National Register submission April 2, 1973). The French plans had provided Annunciation with the services of an unknown French architect, and the church was one of Houston's first professionally designed buildings. Clayton's restoration plans were among the first work of native architects in Houston. His plans included elements of Gothic and Romanesque styles. The basilican church was rebuilt with three western towers, the center one being the highest. A sacristy was added, as were structured buttresses. Clayton was recalled several times for subsequent alterations and repairs. In 1900 the violent hurricane which devastated most of Galveston, swept inland to Houston, toppling Annunciation's high belltower. Clayton rebuilt the tower that same year, and returned in 1910 to direct the restoration of the church's brick fabric and surfacing with a protective coating of plaster.

Annunciation made several social innovations in response to the changing patterns of the 20th century. In 1900 Father Thomas Hennessy founded St. Thomas College, a college preparatory school and one of the very few of its kind in the state. The existence of St. Thomas greatly expanded the scope of Catholic education in Texas, which previously had been primarily limited to the parochial level. St. Thomas has subsequently developed into an accredited university and is one of several church-supported higher educational institutions in Texas.
In 1902 Annunciation became the first Catholic Church in Texas to be served by a black priest, Father Dorsey. He had the double distinction of being the state's first black priest and one of Houston's first native born priests. He was also pastor of the predominately black St. Nicolas Parish and directed the work of Texas' first order of black nuns, the Sisters of the Holy Family, who taught at St. Nicholas school.

As Houston's population swelled with the influx of industrial workers in the 1920s, the population of the poor and indigent also expanded. Annunciation Parish, under the leadership of Monsignor George T. Welsh, established Houston's first free medical clinic for the poor. It was originally known as the "Mexican Clinic" since the majority of patients were Mexican Americans or Mexican citizens. The clinic was officially named San Jose Clinic in 1942.

Since the end of World War II, Annunciation Parish has declined in population as its surroundings have become increasingly commercial, and highways and factories have encroached upon its residential population. Currently the Parish serves only 75 families, but the church continues to function as an urban church, providing mass for travelers and workers and hosting ceremonial functions.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.