St. Rose Priory
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St. Rose Roman Catholic Church Complex
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St. Rose Catholic Church after a snowfall the previous night.
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| Nearest city | Springfield, Kentucky |
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| Coordinates | 37°41′36″N 85°15′49″W / 37.69333°N 85.26361°WCoordinates: 37°41′36″N 85°15′49″W / 37.69333°N 85.26361°W |
| Built | 1852 |
| Architect | Keely,William |
| Architectural style | Tudor Gothic |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| Added to NRHP | February 14, 1978 |
St. Rose Priory is a house of the Dominican Order located near Springfield, Kentucky. It is the first foundation of that Order in the United States, and the first Catholic educational institution west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The land for the priory was purchased by (then) Father Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P. (later Bishop of Cincinnati) in July 1806 with money received from an inheritance. He bought an existing farm west of Springfield, Kentucky. Construction began shortly thereafter, including a church, priory, and college. The college was begun in 1808 but the building was not finished until 1812. It was named Saint Thomas' College, after St. Thomas Aquinas. Its most famous student was Jefferson Davis, the future president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The church was named for St. Rose. Though not designated a cathedral, the church served in the role of a cathedral until the Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral could be built in nearby Bardstown, Kentucky. The church is in a stone Tudor-Gothic style architecture and includes an octagonal tower. The Bardstown diocese was the first diocese west of the Allegheny mountains, with its first and only bishop, Benedict Joseph Flaget as spiritual leader of that diocese. Though not the first Catholic church building in Kentucky (this honor belonged to St. Ann in nearby Springfield, a log cabin church) the church was the first brick church in Kentucky. It is sometimes referred to as a "proto-priory".
A convent was added about 1822, an order of the Dominicans. Later this convent moved to another location in Washington County, Kentucky and founded Saint Catharine College.
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