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On September 12, 1885, the Dominicans of the Western Province were invited to establish a church on property deeded to the Archdiocese by Ben Halliday, one of Oregon’s founding fathers. It was an invitation graciously accepted, for which well over a century of Portland Catholics have been profoundly grateful.
Construction began between Northeast 11th and 12th and Multnomah and Wasco Streets, an area now familiar to Portland shoppers as Lloyd Center, at one time the largest mall in America. To avoid litigation by neighbors who had been promised “no churches, schools or saloons” (no one had envisioned malls in the 1880’s!), land was traded to a location eleven blocks west. It must have been quite a sight the summer of 1893 as winches, teams of horses and rolling logs brought the church to its new home.
In January of 1894, the completed church was blessed by the Most Rev. William Gross, third Archbishop of Oregon. It became a full parish in 1908, and the following year it was established as the first Dominican Priory in the Pacific Northwest.
It has been a long and fulfilling journey from the picture above to the beautifully restored church as shown in the accompanying photograph taken just after the completion of the new staircase in 2010. The future of the parish will be written over the years to come, as all of us write the pages for future generations of faithful Catholics. We hope you will be part of our story. |
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