Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville
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Cathedral of the Assumption
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| Location | Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Coordinates | 38°15′6.61″N 85°45′30.65″W / 38.2518361°N 85.7585139°WCoordinates: 38°15′6.61″N 85°45′30.65″W / 38.2518361°N 85.7585139°W |
| Built | 1852 |
| Architect | William Keely; D.X. Murphy & Bros |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 77000623 |
| Added to NRHP | September 21, 1977 |
The Cathedral of the Assumption is the cathedral mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. As of 2013[update]Joseph Kurtz, D.D., the fourth Archbishop of Louisville, was in residence at the Cathedral. Jeffery S. Nicholas serves as rector.
In 1811, a small group of Catholics in Louisville formed Saint Louis Church at 10th and Main Streets. Previously, Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, called the "circuit rider priest," had served the Louisville area, along with much of the American frontier.
In September 1821, Father Philip Hosten became the first residential pastor of Saint Louis Church. Fr. Hosten died one year later during an outbreak of yellow fever in the city. By 1830, a larger Saint Louis Church was built five blocks south of the Ohio River on Fifth Street. The Cathedral of the Assumption stands on that site to this day.
The Diocese of Bardstown, the first inland diocese in the United States, was established in 1808, with Benedict Joseph Flaget as the first Bishop of Bardstown. The diocese included most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
In 1841, the diocese was moved from Bardstown to Louisville, and Saint Louis Church became Saint Louis Cathedral. Bishop Flaget, now the Bishop of Louisville, decided in 1849 that a new cathedral should be built. However, Bishop Flaget died on February 11, 1850, a few months after the laying of the cornerstone for the new church building. His remains rest today in a chapel in the Cathedral Undercroft.
The project begun by Bishop Flaget was completed by Bishop Martin John Spalding, the second Bishop of Louisville. On October 3, 1852, the new Cathedral was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Cathedral of the Assumption. The new Cathedral was almost an identical but larger replica of its predecessor, St. Louis Church. The new Cathedral was built around St. Louis Church, and once completed, St. Louis was disassembled and carried piece by piece out the front doors.
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