DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in what would become Irving, Texas, Catholic life didn't start with grand architecture or soaring steeples. It started in somebody's living room.
As far back as the 1860s, Mass was being held in private homes out in this part of Dallas County. No pews, no altar rail — just faith and four walls. That went on for decades before the Mission of St.
Luke was established in 1902, meeting for a time in the Lively School building, northeast of original Irving. And here's a detail that'll stay with you: oral tradition says parishioners would pull the seats right out of their buggies on Sunday morning and carry them inside to serve as pews. You needed a place to sit, you brought one.
That's a congregation that means business. Then in December of 1903, the city of Irving itself was founded — by J. O.
Schulze and Otis Brown — and those two men each gave a town lot for the Catholic Church of Christ and Baptist churches both. A new town, and one of its first acts was setting aside land for worship. St.
Luke's first church rose on the corner of Jefferson and 2nd streets — a white frame structure, dedicated in 1904. Clean, simple, and theirs. It stood until 1928, when the building was sold to the Irving School District.
But the congregation didn't scatter. They erected a second church, this one on the corner of Iowa and 5th streets — Iowa Street that you'd now call O'Connor — and they built it in red brick. That altar from the first church?
They moved it right into the new one. Through all those years, services were provided by priests coming in from Sacred Heart Cathedral and the University of Dallas, over in Dallas. St.
Luke was doing the work of a parish long before it officially became one. That finally happened in 1947. And in 1948, a rectory was built and the first pastor was assigned — a permanent shepherd for a congregation that had been finding its way for the better part of a century.
Then came May 2, 1954 — the dedication of the third St. Luke Church and rectory. A parish school followed in 1955, and a convent was added in 1958.
From buggy seats on a dirt floor in the 1860s to a church, a school, a convent, and a rectory by 1958. That's not just a congregation growing — that's a community putting down roots one decade at a time, and refusing, at every turn, to let go.
What the marker says
Area Catholic services date from the 1860s, when mass was held in private homes. The Mission of St. Luke was established in 1902, and met temporarily in the Lively School building northeast of original Irving. Oral tradition states that parishioners removed seats from their buggies to be used as pews on Sundays. The city of Irving was founded in December 1903 by J. O. Schulze and Otis Brown, who each gave a town lot for the Catholic Church of Christ, and Baptist churches. St. Luke's first church, a white frame structure on the corner of Jefferson and 2nd streets, was dedicated in 1904. The building was sold to the Irving School District in 1928, and a second church was erected on the corner of Iowa (now O'Connor) and 5th streets. The red brick church housed the altar that had been moved from the first church. Services were provided by priests from Sacred Heart Cathedral and the University of Dallas in Dallas. St. Luke attained parish status in 1947, and in 1948 a rectory was built and the first pastor assigned. Dedication of the third St. Luke Church and rectory was held on May 2, 1954. To the brick church was added a parish school in 1955 and a convent in 1958. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1985