Immaculate Conception Cathedral

Immaculate Conception Cathedral. . , This cathedral, which was completed on July 6, 1856, was built with 250,000 hand-made clay bricks shaped and oven cured in the nearby village of Santa Rosalia. This church designed and constructed under the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate who had arrived in the Rio Grande Valley ten years earlier. It replaced the original church, a wooden structure that had been built on the corner of E. Adams and E. Jefferson Streets. The rectory behind the church was the site of the first Oblate Seminary in Texas and served as a refuge and haven for priests fleeing the revolutions and bandits along the border. The church was first elevated to a cathedral in 1947 when the Vicariate Apostolic of Brownsville was established and it was so designated a second time in 1965 when the Diocese of Brownsville was created. For more than a century and a half, Immaculate Conception Cathedral has contributed to the growth of religion and culture in this area. Recognizing the history of this cathedral the international order of the Alhambra has dedicated this plaque to mark the Immaculate Conception Cathedral as a National Catholic Historical Site.