Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church - Refugio, TX - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

In 1793, Spanish friars built their last Texas mission nearly 30 miles northwest of here. Two years later, Nuestra Señora del Refugio (Our Lady of Refuge) Mission was relocated to present-day Refugio. Karankawa resistance and Comanche raids closed the mission in 1824. Irish immigrants of the 1830s rebuilt the mission church and named the town Refugio. A 1901 Gothic Revival incarnation of Our Lady of Refuge Church sits on the original mission site.

From Ancestry.com Website:

"The fourth Our Lady of Refuge was the largest frame church in South Texas at that time. It measured 42 by 104 feet with a tower 105 feet high. Rows of wooden pillars rise to the 30-foot ceiling from amid the pews. The carved columns meet the intersections of beams that criss-cross the ceiling. Msgr. Tengler credits the wood frame as the reason for church's longevity. 'It's probably standing because it was built of wood; it has some give to it,' he said. But the structure almost had too much give in 1942, when it nearly succumbed to a hurricane. 'And it would have blown over if the winds had lasted longer,' said Msgr. Tengler. As it was, a hydraulic jack had to be used to straighten the leaning church, and a few beams in the ornate sanctuary are still out of alignment."

"In 1976, the church was restored to preserve the architecture and beauty it had at the turn of the century. The interior woodwork was refinished, the pressed tin walls repainted and the elaborate altars retouched in gold leaf. The carved wood baptismal font, part of the original furnishings, was also refinished."

"The church grounds also include a school, opened by the Sisters of Mercy in 1875 and closed in 1972, due to lack of students. There is a vacant convent, a cafeteria and auditorium used for activities by the parish's 225 families, and a rectory."