County of church: NO County: St. Louis Independent City
Location of church: Gravois Ave., Lynch St. & Ohio Ave., St. Louis
Built: August 1895
Architect: Original: German architect E. Seiberts
Above plans revised by Klutho and Ranft, St. Louis
Architectural Style: German Gothic Revival
"St. Francis de Sales church, built at the turn of the last century, is known to locals as “the Cathedral of South St. Louis” because of its elegantly-designed exterior and 300-foot spire. St. Francis de Sales “Cathedral” is an imposing Gothic revival building. The High Altar alone is more than 50 feet high and forms a unique throne for Christ the King, present in the ornate Tabernacle under the species of the consecrated host. This church is the ideal setting for the sacred solemn liturgy, and its adjacent buildings seem to be made for the needs of our continuously growing community.
"The church is the only church in the St. Louis area of German Gothic architecture and is based on the design of a church in Germany. St. Francis de Sales has been an anchor of its neighborhood since its founding after the end of the Civil War in 1867. The campus includes the church, a rectory, former convent, and two former school buildings. The church is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
"St. Louis, the “Rome of the West,” has long been known as a focal point of genuine Catholic life in this country. Steadfast faithfulness to Holy Mother Church and the Roman Pontiff, filial devotion toward Our Lady, and a deep Eucharistic piety are the characteristics of this city." ~ St. Francis de Sales, History
"The Germans who traveled from port-of-entries to St. Louis between 1830
and 1848 included professionals, craftsmen, peasants, Roman Catholics,
conservative Lutherans, Evangelicals, and Freethinkers. They spoke dialects based on region and class and were further separated by a rigid social structure headed by a secular and church landed aristocrates,
aggravated by a long tradition of religious and civil wars .... The heterogenous Germans of the 1830' s quickly dispersed to almost all sections
of St. Louis, Concentrations, rather than enclaves, of Germans developed
and are documented by the 1850 census, the first U.S. census which differentiates between country of origin.
St. Louis in 1840 contained a population of 16,469 and ranked twentieth in the
United States; of that number, between four and five thousand were German Catholics without the leadership of any "efficient" German clergymen. Until the
construction (1844) of St. Mary Victories at Third and Gratiot Streets, German-speaking Catholics from the southside attended Mass at special services at the
Cathedral or in make-shift buildings. on the Cathedral grounds .In May of 1845,
Bishop Kenrick announced the division of the city into four parishes.. The two
German-speaking congregations, St. Joseph's on the near-north (Eleventh and
Biddle Streets) and St. Mary of Victories, were not considered true parishes but subsidiary, where only German-speaking people could fulfill their religious obligations.
"By 1850, St. Louis ranked sixth in the country with a population of nearly 80,000.
The largest group of foreign-born was German: 22,340 compared to the second
largest group, the Irish, with 9,719. Ward l, Chouteau south to the city limits
at Arsenal, contained the heaviest concentration of Germans. Ward 2, which included St. Mary of Victories, had become a Ward of first residency for Germans.
The mid-century establishment and rapid growth of Saints Peter and Paul, soon to
become the mother church to St. Francis de Sales, reflected the southwesternly
movement of Germans into the Soulard subdivisions in Ward 1.
"The desire to erect a symbol--drafted in Germany by a German architect--modeled
after Medieval German prototypes is highly significant in a decade which produced the Wainwright Building, a system of Boulevards, Union Station, the first
automobiles on city streets, and the consolidation of most of the transit lines
into one, city-wide company. To much of the German community of St. Louis, the
home and the parish remained the center of their lives. To some, technology and
assimilation were perceived as threats to the faith and the future of their
children." ~ NRHP Nomination Form