Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception - Lake Charles, LA
Posted by: 
JimmyEv
N 30° 13.593 W 093° 12.982
15R E 479179 N 3343909
A pretty 1913 Romanesque church, designed by Favrot and Livaudais. Windows are filled with stained glass, brick crosses ornament the walls, and a five-story bell tower rises in the front.
Waymark Code: WM14NN
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 01/13/2007
Views: 143
This two-story church with its five-story bell tower, a rectory and a breezeway, was designed by Favrot and Livaudais in 1913. Purely Romanesque in design, the windows and doorways are arched in brick and decorated with brick crosses and original stained glass, including a series of Viennese stained glass windows depicting the story of Mary’s life installed in 1939. The interior walls are lined with stone blocks. The floorplan, under a vaulted half-dome ceiling, resembles the shape of a Greek cross.
The first Catholic church in Lake Charles, a mission chapel dedicated to St. Francis de Sales, was built in 1858. When the first resident priest arrived in 1869, St. Francis de Sales became an officially recognized Roman Catholic Parish. The church was damaged by a hurricane in 1879. A new church was erected for the parish in 1881 and renamed the Church of the Immaculate Conception. This church burnt in 1910, to be replaced with the current structure. In 1979, when the Diocese of Lake Charles was created, the Church of the Immaculate Conception became the Diocese’s Cathedral.
