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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
Historic Fort Worth Inc. recognized the parish of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church for its work in preserving the historic structure in the Near Southside.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
An image depicting John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, one of the Luminous Mysteries.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
Rev. Father John Perikomalayil delivers remarks during the dedication of the renovated church sanctuary.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
This mural depicts the Crowning With Thorns, one of the Sorrowful Mysteries, recalling Roman soldiers mocking Jesus by crowning him with thorns and hailing him as king.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
“One of the most beautiful things is when a mother with her child — or any young person comes in — they're able to really picture it in their mind what Jesus went through."
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
Church services were moved to St. Mary's old school building for several months while the renovation, with all its scaffolding parts, took place.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
This photo, of Emily Litjens of Conrad Schmitt Studios, illustrates the detail involved with the work.
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Juan Guajardo/North Texas Catholic
Like his predecessor in 1924, Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson rededicated St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church last year.
St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church has been a cornerstone of life in Fort Worth’s Near Southside for more than 115 years.
Church and civic leaders gathered at the church at Jennings and Magnolia in February 1924 for the dedication and cornerstone laying. Rev. Joseph Patrick Lynch, bishop of Dallas — the dioceses were not yet separate — officiated the consecration, while Rev. Robert M. Nolan, rector of St. Patrick’s Church, delivered the dedicatory sermon. Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus served as the guard of honor.
The cornerstone was a piece of Cassoday granite, two feet square. A hole, 10 inches square and eight inches deep, contained the copper box placed by Bishop Lynch.
In the box was a parchment, inscribed with the date of the week, month, and year; the names of the reigning pontiff, Pius XI; President Calvin Coolidge; Gov. Pat M. Neff; Mayor Ed R. Cockrell; the pastor, Rev. Father J.A. Malloy; and the bishop of the diocese, Lynch; the names of the families of the parish, printed on cards; small coins of the day; and newspapers containing proceedings of the ceremony.
The new St. Mary's, a showpiece of Romanesque architecture, soon became a prominent landmark on Magnolia Avenue and a hub for worship and education on the Near Southside, as well as a centerpiece for Catholic life with St. Joseph's Hospital and Laneri High School both a stone's throw, and Our Lady of Victory Academy just a couple of miles to the south. The new church rose from the ruins of the former structure, partly wrecked by fire in 1922. The new church building cost about $40,000 (more than $750,000 in today’s dollars).
The first Mass was said in July 1924.
St. Mary
St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church
Since that time, each generation has borne the responsibility of stewarding this beautiful church, a place for the Holy Mass in the Roman Rite. This current generation has stepped up in a big way.
A two-year project renovated the original stained-glass windows from 2010–12. The windows were removed part by part, shipped to Munich, Germany, and refurbished. The cost of that process was a little less than $600,000, said Rev. Father John Perikomalayil, pastor of the church.
More recently, last year, St. Mary’s dedicated a more than $680,000 restoration of the church ceiling. The work was recognized this fall with a Steward Award from Historic Fort Worth Inc.
“It’s a recognition of our presence, and it’s also an encouragement for the people to see the church as something that is recognized, not only from the Catholic Church’s point of view, but from the general society itself, as it is very important and stands as a landmark in the city of Fort Worth, which is recognized not only by Catholics, but also by everybody in the city,” Perikomalayil said.
This project, too, took almost two years to complete, from concept, design, and fundraising to the scaffolding leaving the sanctuary.
The work was done by Conrad Schmitt Studios, the same Wisconsin restoration company that painted the church’s original murals in the late 1930s.
Canvas medallions that once dotted the ceiling were removed as part of the work, and the former tan ceiling was repainted blue to match blue backgrounds found elsewhere in the church. The color change brightened the space, Perikomalayil said. Paint infused with gold flakes was used to accent the halo above the mural of Mary in the sanctuary, as well as the lettering along the sanctuary borders.
In place of the removed ceiling medallions, new murals depicting the Sorrowful and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary were added. Perikomalayil noted that the church’s stained-glass windows already depicted the Joyful Mysteries on the east side and the Glorious Mysteries on the west, and the ceiling murals completed the full set.
Together, the imagery allowed parents to visually explain the Rosary to their children and show how the four mysteries connect to the life of Jesus.
A skylight high above the sanctuary, installed years earlier, had served little purpose because it was covered and allowed no natural light into the space, Perikomalayil said. That skylight was removed and covered over and replaced with a mural of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, restoring imagery that had occupied the same location decades earlier.
Additional murals depicting God the Father and the Sacred Heart of Jesus were added to the choir loft, completing a visual representation of the Holy Trinity within the parish.
“Those stained-glass windows gave us that idea of adding the other mysteries, which represents the whole Rosary within the church in a pictorial form,” Perikomalayil said. “One of the most beautiful things is when a mother with her child — or any young person comes in — they’re able to really picture it in their mind what Jesus went through while reflecting upon those mysteries through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary by praying the Rosary.”
The changes are especially more impactful in today’s multimedia world, Perikomalayil added.
“Visual sight is becoming more captivating than just words alone,” he said. The changes in the church will better connect worshippers to the life of Christ. “You are able to connect with the reality, even though it’s in a pictorial form. That makes more impact when we pray and when we reflect. It makes more impact on a person in a spiritual way.”
More work is being done on the church with a roughly $300,000 fundraising surplus. The church is adding bathrooms and a bride’s room.
With major restorations complete and additional improvements underway, St. Mary of the Assumption, which was recorded as a Texas historic landmark in 1979, enters its next chapter grounded in careful stewardship. More than a century after its cornerstone was laid, the church remains a place where history, faith, and daily life continue to meet.
Said Perikomalayil: “I think [the Historic Fort Worth award] brings a kind of pride among the members of the community as we, the community of Saint Mary of the Assumption, become a kind of icon or an entity that also has a wider meaning in the community, in the city itself.”
