Saint Peter's Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Back in 1866, Bishop Claude M. Dubuis of Galveston had a task that needed doing — he wanted a congregation organized and a church built to serve Boerne and the outlying towns and army posts scattered across that Hill Country terrain.

So he sent a young French immigrant by the name of Emil L. J. R.

Fleury to go get it done. Now, Fleury did get it done. That stone structure was completed in 1867, and it came out looking like something worth the effort — an entry portico with a shingled gable end, a small belfry, and segmental-arch windows catching the Texas light just so.

Then in 1869, Fleury left Boerne. He moved on, the way people do. Story over, you might think.

But here's where it gets interesting — and the marker makes sure you know it. In 1923, Emil L. J.

R. Fleury came back. The very same man Bishop Dubuis had sent in 1866 returned to Boerne in 1923 to help lay the cornerstone for a new sanctuary.

He'd seen that first stone church rise from the ground with his own hands, and he lived to set the foundation stone of what would come next. Saint Peter's Catholic Church in Boerne — two cornerstones, one man, and a whole lot of years in between.

What the marker says

In 1866 Bishop Claude M. Dubuis of Galveston sent a young French immigrant, Emil L. J. R. Fleury, to organize a congregation and build a church to serve Boerne and the outlying towns and army posts. This stone structure was completed in 1867. Features include an entry portico with shingled gable end, a small belfry, and segmental-arch windows. Fleury, who left Boerne in 1869, returned in 1923 to help lay the cornerstone for a new sanctuary. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987