A great New Orleans Church celebrates an anniversary

Immaculate Conception Church to celebrate its 160th anniversary

Published: Friday, August 12, 2011, 9:15 PM

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Friends and parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church downtown, one of the most iconic churches in the city, this weekend will celebrate the 160th anniversary of the laying of its cornerstone, even as they go public with a campaign to raise $2.5 million for repairs, including restoration of more than 100 of the church’s stained-glass windows.

Enlarge Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Two walls where stained glass windows were removed to be restored inside Immaculate Conception church in downtown New Orleans on Friday, August 12, 2011. Immaculate Conception Church anniversary gallery (5 photos)

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Archbishop Gregory Aymond will celebrate the 11 a.m. Mass there Sunday with its pastor, the Rev. Steven Sauer. Aymond will bless a plaque noting that the church is on the National Register of Historic Places.
For decades the Moorish red brick church on Baronne Street, just a block off Canal Street, has been a convenient stopping place for a quick business-day prayer or midday Mass for businessmen and women in the Central Business District.
A special connection
Many of the 850 families and individuals who registered themselves as parishioners live far from the church, but feel a connection to it — sometimes because of the quality of its sacred interior space, which rises 108 feet above the main altar, or through some personal connection to the Jesuits, who have operated it since the early 19th century.
Immaculate Conception is one of the grand old churches of the city. Built in another era, its soaring interior draws the eye upward, over scores of images of saints, Christ and Mary.
The church is distinctive as well because its decorative motif is Moorish. Its walls and columns are packed with complicated geometric designs: interlocking circles and triangles and remarkably, hundreds of Stars of David impressed into walls, balconies and the church’s famous wrought-iron pews.
But even after a $1 million renovation in 1998, the church’s stained-glass windows need extensive restoration, Sauer said.
Moreover, the church needs an expensive new heating and air-conditioning system. And there are plans to redesign the rear of the church to include two new confessionals and shrines to St. Francis Xavier and another saint.
Most of the old windows are from France and Germany. The lowest belt of windows depicts Jesuit heroes, often in their martyrdom.
The windows were salvaged from the first church on the site, which opened in 1851. But some are bowed or sagging in their frames, evidence of structural problems dating from their reinstallation in the replacement church.
Others are dirty, faded and steadily deteriorating because of moisture problems, Sauer said.
The campaign has enough in hand now to begin repairs to windows on the the lowest level. Some will be taken out next month for more than a year’s restoration at Conrad Schmitt Studios in New Berlin, Wis., he said.
Changes over the years
The church dates from 1930, but is a near replica of an earlier church that stood on the site from 1851 until 1928. The predecessor church suffered severe structural damage during pile-driving for the Pere Marquette Building next door. It was dismantled, then rebuilt.
Immaculate Conception underwent a $1 million renovation in 1998 under the Rev. Harry Tompson, who so revitalized the downtown parish that it opened a homeless center and founded Café Reconcile, a job-training laboratory for at-risk youth, and the Good Shepherd Nativity School, for the poorest of poor children.
All still exist, Sauer said. The homeless center has moved and is incorporated into the St. Joseph Rebuild Center at nearby St. Joseph Church on Tulane Avenue. And Good Shepherd is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary.