St. Francis de Sales - Philadelphia, PA
Posted by: 
ODragon
N 39° 56.827 W 075° 12.870
18S E 481676 N 4421909
A large old beautiful church in west Philly.
Waymark Code: WM4KYW
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 09/04/2008
Views: 3
From Wiki:
St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1890, is a Catholic church in University City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Its cornerstone laid in 1907, the Guastavino tiled dome of the de Sales parish has been an icon in its neighborhood. The de Sales parish is a large church was designed by Philadelphia architect Henry D. Dagit, built in the Byzantine Revival style and modeled after Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, incorporating elements of the Arts and Crafts movement which was at its peak when the church was built.
The parish was created to serve the needs of the immigrant Irish community that was then living in the neighborhood. The parish has seen its congregation change over the years from the working class Irish immigrant families – which eventually left for the suburbs to the Vietnamese refugee families which still meet at the parish, though they too have moved on. The parish currently serves a large African immigrant community, a homegrown African American constituency, and the faculty, staff and students of the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the University of the Sciences. The parish is known for its choir, elementary school and the church organ. The pastor as of June 2005 was Reverent Zachary Navit.
The parish has been the anchor for the community, and is one reason that the portion of Cedar Park in which it sits did not decay as much as other parts of West Philadelphia.
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