St. Mary’s, Fargo’s Catholic cathedral, wasn’t yet completed when hundreds of visitors and many priests gathered to dedicate the structure. People came from all over North Dakota, arriving by train in time for the 10 a.m. event, which took place on this date in 1899.
There was also high-level Catholic clergy from Winnipeg, St. Paul and Philadelphia. The event was doubly special for Bishop John Shanley, who was marking the 25th anniversary of his ordination that day. He led a march of priests and altar boys, sprinkling holy water on the new cathedral as the procession circled the structure.
But the building wasn’t quite completed. “Through a slight hitch,” according to the local newspaper, the large window on the cathedral’s north side was late to be installed. And work on the 172-foot tower wasn’t completed yet either. But the ceremony went on nonetheless. After the procession, the crowd of onlookers entered the building, where the dedication ceremony continued, followed by mass.
Shanley had begun planning for the cathedral when he arrived in the early 1890s. Construction only got as far as the basement before the great Fargo fire of 1893, which destroyed most of downtown. Building the cathedral was further delayed when Shanley donated funds he had raised for the project to the city for reconstruction of the town.
The Victorian Gothic building is located at 619 Seventh Street North in Fargo. It’s not the only architectural masterpiece in the neighborhood. The First Presbyterian Church at Second Avenue and Roberts Street is a stone Scottish Gothic Revival church with intricate stained glass windows. It was dedicated 1930 – 31 years after St. Mary’s.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, 1899, May 30, p. 8.
https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/cathedral-st-mary
http://www.fargodiocese.org/history
https://library.ndsu.edu/fargo-history/?q=content/first-presbyterian-church
