From the
Florida Division of Historical Resources website:
Jacksonville CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 121 E. Duval St. 1907. Late Gothic Revival. M.H. Hubbard, architect. 2 stories. One of the finest examples of Late Gothic Revival church architecture in Florida. Rough-faced Kentucky limestone exterior, carved-stone detail, with lancet window and door openings throughout the building. Private. N.R. 1992.
The Jacksonville Historical Society provides the following condensed history of this church:
ARCHITECT: M. H. Hubbard - Utica, N.Y.
BUILDER: Halsema-Woodcock Company
Immaculate Conception Church traces its origin to around 1845, when it was founded in Jacksonville as a mission of the Catholic parish of Savannah. Two church buildings were erected for the congregation prior to the present one. The first was built shortly before 1847, and in 1854 Immaculate Conception was established as a parish with Father William Hamilton as the first full-time pastor. This earliest church building was burned by Federal troops during the Civil War. The second building, completed in 1874, succumbed to the 1901 Fire. New York architect M.H. Hubbard designed this building in 1905, the year after his design for Bethel Baptist Church (D-66) was completed. Construction on Immaculate Conception Church did not begin until 1907, however, and the finished structure was dedicated on December 8, 1910. It is one of the finest Late Gothic Revival churches in Florida. Its pointed arches, cruciform floor plan, window tracery, buttresses, pinnacles, and spires are typical of the Gothic style. The vaulted interior space is magnificent. Until the fifteen-story Heard Building (D-57) was completed in 1913, the gold-plated cross atop the slender steeple was the highest point in the city, towering 178.5 feet. In 1979 the Immaculate Conception Church became one of a small number of Catholic churches in America to be "solemnly dedicated," meaning that it cannot ever be purposefully torn down or used for anything but a church..
The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church provides the following more detailed history:
Long before there was a Catholic Church in Jacksonville, Catholic families gathered in their homes to celebrate Mass with a priests who traveled on horseback from Georgia. This period extended from 1829 to 1854. By 1854, Catholics moved from celebrating Mass in their homes to a small wooden building on the corner of Ocean and Duval streets. This was also the year that Pope Pius IX declared that the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION of the Blessed Virgin Mary was now an Article of Faith.
It was fitting, therefore, that the new wooden church building in Jacksonville be named in honor of the new Marian dogma. In fact, William J. Hamilton, a priest from the Diocese of Savannah, was sent to Jacksonville to dedicate the church and become its spiritual leader. He exhibited a singular facility for ecumenism which so many of Immaculate Conception's pastors carried on through the years. Father Hamilton was, as an observer put it, "a man of amiable and social qualities that endeared him to all, irrespective of creed." Following 1857 when Florida was made a Vicariate Apostolic, "Cowford," as Jacksonville was known at that time, became part of the new Vicariate.
The 1860s were perilous times for the nascent church and for Jacksonville as a whole. In 1863, the town was occupied by Union troops and they prosecuted the "war Between the States." Sadly, some intolerant members of the bivouacked troops decided that the gates of hell shall prevail on the "beautiful little cottage" that the Catholics were using as their church. The entire building was sacked, with Union soldiers marching through town wearing sacred vestments and blowing notes through organ pipes pulled from the church. After the war, Church officials requested reimbursement for damages by the U.S. government, but their demands fell on deaf ears. Regardless, the parish moved forward and established a school in 1868 under the direction of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Fortune shone on Immaculate Conception Parish during the next 35 years as men such as Father John Kenny -- later a bishop -- Father Michael Maher and Father James J. Meehan led the parish into its maturity as a religious cornerstone of downtown Jacksonville. Immaculate Conception was also the mother church of many of the first parishes which were established in the city's first suburbs. from 1881 to 1964 it operated a school that early in its history also included high school classes.
The present church edifice was dedicated in 1910 on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The former pastor, Bishop Kenny, presided at the dedication of the church which is constructed of white Kentucky limestone. Its interior is decorated with fine stained glass windows produced in Munich, Germany by the Mayer Stained Glass Company. At the time, Immaculate Conception was the tallest building in the city. In modern times, "I.C.," under the leadership of its current pastor, Father Antonio Leon, has become the cornerstone of Jacksonville's Catholic community and has more than 800 registered families.