- Church of the Immaculate Conception (Knoxville, Tennessee)
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The Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception is a historic church located at 414 West Vine on Summit Hill in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The first Roman Catholic parish in Knoxville was founded circa 1855 on the site of the present sanctuary. Father Abram Joseph Ryan (1836-1886), the Poet-Priest of the Confederacy, was once a priest at this parish. He was the author of the Requiem of the Lost Cause, The Conquered Banner, written soon after the surrender at Appomattox.
The existing church sanctuary was constructed circa 1885, in front of the earlier building. The brick church was designed by Joseph Baumann, who along with George Franklin Barber was one of Knoxville's first major professional architects. The church was designed in the Victorian Gothic style of architecture. The sanctuary is two-stories tall, with a central clock tower in a turretted spire.
The church remains a Roman Catholic parish in the downtown portion of the city. However, Sacred Heart Cathedral in the west Knoxville community of Bearden is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop.
References
- Flanigen, George J. Catholicity in Tennessee.
- Gibney, Laurence V. The Church on Summit Hill: The Catholics of Knoxville and East Tennessee. (L.V. Gibney, Knoxville, 1986).
- Isenhour, Judith Clayton. Knoxville - A Pictorial History. (Donning, 1978, 1980.), pp. 25 & 47.
- Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), page 14.
- The Future of Knoxville's Past: Historic and Architectural Resources in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Knoxville Historic Zoning Commission, October, 2006), page 24.
External links
Categories:- Roman Catholic churches in Tennessee
- Churches in Knoxville, Tennessee
- Religious buildings completed in 1885
- 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings
- Tennessee building and structure stubs
- United States church stubs
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