Tempe Historic Property Survey

The Old St. Mary’s church is significant as a prominent landmark in Tempe and as a representative example of Territorial Victorian Romanesque Revival architecture. The church retains a high degree of integrity from the time of its construction in 1902-1903. This building was constructed to replace an earlier adobe chapel which had served the Catholic community since 1881. The project was stimulated by Severinus Westhoff, O.F.M., a German priest who had come to the Tempe chapel in 1895, and who had started missions in both Scottsdale and Guadalupe. With the help of volunteer labor from both the Mexican-American and Anglo communities, the church was completed and dedicated in 1903. Among the prominent citizens in Tempe who were originally involved in the church building project were John Curry, J .J. Hodnett, Winchester Miller, and James T. Priest. The work of making and firing the bricks was carried out about two miles from the construction site, and the clay was hauled from Fort McDowell. The brick cutter (from Tucson), and the bricklayer (from Phoenix), were the principal specialists on the project. The church was granted parish status in 1932, and was transferred to the Newman Club in 1962. In 1976, the Knights of Columbus raised funds to remodel the building to meet city codes. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

St. Mary’s Church is a one-story structure of locally-made, fired red brick. It is rectangular in plan with a steep gable roof sloping east and west. The gable at the front façade is interrupted by a centrally-located square extension bell tower which terminates in an eight-sided steeple roof. The first story of the building begins above grade; below grade the building is constructed of rusticated blocks of local vesicular basalt. The round-arched main door is approached by a single flight of concrete steps. A stained glass fanlight surmounts the double entry door. Above the main doorway on the central tower is a round window, and above this a small round-arched window. A larger round-arched belfry opening near the top is replicated on four sides of the tower. Five round-arched windows occur at regular intervals on the east and west facades, and two flank the entrance on the north and south facades. The interior is an open hall with a narrow vestibule and choir loft across the south (entry) end. A series of three plastered vaults are supported on round composite Corinthian pilasters. A basement, partly below grade, spans the entire length of the building, and is divided into a variety of meeting rooms. It is reached by an exterior stair on the west side and an interior stairway at the west end of the vestibule.

St. Mary's Catholic Church, also known as the second Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, as it appeared soon after it was built in 1903.

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