SACRED PLACES RETURNS OCTOBER 21, 2017
The popular tour benefits GHF’s ongoing restoration of St. Joseph’s Church, the oldest wooden church building in Galveston and the oldest German Catholic church in Texas. A wide range of religious traditions and building styles will be featured, highlighting the island’s rich religious heritage while showcasing the depth and range of Galveston’s sacred architecture. The 2017 tour will be presented in conjunction with Galveston Historical Foundation’s annual Galveston Heritage Day. Tickets are $15 per person and available online.
“Galveston’s Sacred Places are a significant part of our history. When you tour these great buildings you can learn the story of some of the lives of generations of Galvestonians,” states GHF Executive Director Dwayne Jones. “This tour is a glimpse into our past and one that will broaden your idea of what living on the island is really like.”
Check in for the Sacred Places Tour will be held at St. Joseph’s Church, 2202 Avenue K, starting at 9 a.m. You will be given a map of additional churches which you can visit from 9 am – 1 pm.
2017 CHURCHES WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN AUGUST!
St. Joseph’s German Catholic Church
By the middle of the 19th century, Galveston Island was home to somewhere between two and three thousand German immigrants, almost half the total population. The church was dedicated in April 1860, making it the oldest wooden church building in Galveston. The building is a simple wooden Gothic Revival structure, rectangular with a square bell tower with trefoil window. The softly painted interior features a coffered ceiling with painted quatrefoils and other Gothic symbols, plaster of Paris Stations of the Cross with German inscriptions dating from the early years of the 20th century and the original, elaborate main and side altars with reredos as well as many of the original statues and altar furnishings. The altars were designed by Nicholas J. Clayton in 1887.