Established 1883
— Second Oldest Catholic Church on Florida's West Coast —
In thanksgiving for a prayer answered, Judge Edmund F. Dunne began the Catholic Colony of San Antonio in 1882 and built its first church the following year at this site. Reminiscent of what he saw in Europe, the church (rather than a municipal building) was intentionally situated at the center of the town on the large plaza and by 1884 a schoolhouse had been added next door. The present church replaced the original wooden one in 1911 and is one the oldest known precast hollow-block structures in Florida. While most of the heart of pine pews are originals salvaged from the 1883 church, the twin colonial towers were added in 1954. The wall and adjacent Lourdes grotto are of native stone and the antique stained glass windows were produced locally. Staffed for over 100 years by Benedictine monks from nearby St. Leo Abbey, care of the parish was returned to diocesan priests in 1996.| HM Number | HMR3V |
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| Tags | |
| Year Placed | 2011 |
| Placed By | Diocese of St. Petersburg |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Thursday, September 18th, 2014 at 2:24pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 17R E 375307 N 3134957 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 28.33488333, -82.27210000 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 28° 20.093', W 82° 16.326' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 28° 20' 5.58" N, 82° 16' 19.56" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 352, 813 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 32801-32899 Massachusetts Ave, San Antonio FL 33576, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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