Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church

Priests of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate Order staff the church; this order served as missionaries on both sides of the Rio Grande in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, covering a territory 90 miles wide stretching from Brownsville to Roma. Their main base of operations was at La Lomita, a hilltop north of the Rio Grande and southeast of the future location of the city of Mission. The parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) was established in 1899 as the first mission of La Lomita Church; the original name of the parish was Our Lady of the Mission (Nuestra Senora de la Mission). The name was changed in 1927 when the new church building was built.

The Sisters of Mercy operated the Catholic school affiliated with Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, serving the children of South Mission since 1914. The school occupied an expanded wood frame building by 1933 at the location of the older wooden church on the west side on N. Dunlop Avenue. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School building, constructed in the 1960s, now occupies the site where the older church once stood. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of all Mexican Catholics. The twelfth of December is the date of the annual celebration to honor the appearance of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a Mexican on a hill near Mexico City on that date in 1531.

The 1926-1927 church was designed in a combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival styles, as seen in the domed steeple. quatrefoil windows, cast stone entry and espadanas. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church [OLG] is one of four Catholic churches presently within the city limits of Mission. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is in the 900 block of Matamoros Street, about 8 blocks east of OLG. St. Paul's was built in 1908 in the 1100 block of N. Francisco Avenue and traditionally served the Anglo population in North Mission. St. John of the Fields is on the western edge of town near Jaycee Park.

Anonymous. "Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebrated in Catholic Church." Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, TX) December 12th 1922, 1-1.

Library of Congress. Description of photographs of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Carol M. Highsmith Archive. Accessed Oct. 10th 2020. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014632105/.

Malanka, Anne. Myers, Terri. NRHP Multiple Property Documentation, Historic and Architectural Resources of Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1998.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Map of Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas. New York. Sanborn Map Company. 1919, 1925, 1933.

Texas Historical Commission. Historical Marker 3883, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Accessed October 10th 2020. https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/.