St. Francis Xavier College Church, Gothic Revival church in Midtown St. Louis, US.

St. Francis Xavier College Church is a Gothic Revival church of light grey stone in Midtown St. Louis. A single tall tower rises above the crossing, topped by a steep spire with a small green section near its peak; below it are paired louvered arched openings and two round clock faces. The front has a large pointed-arch window with circular tracery above a recessed pointed portal reached by a wide flight of steps, flanked by smaller pointed arches and pinnacles.

The parish was founded in 1836, when Bishop Joseph Rosati allowed the Jesuits to form St. Louis's first English-speaking parish at their college; it met in the chapel of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The cornerstone of the first church was laid on April 12, 1840, at Ninth Street and Christy Avenue. After the university moved to Grand Boulevard in 1867, Thomas Walsh designed the present church, begun in 1884; Henry Switzer finished it in 1898, and the spire and bells followed in 1914.

The parish has always been popularly called the College Church, though it was dedicated to St. Francis Xavier from the start. Its windows were made by Emil Frei Jr. and installed between 1929 and 1938, paid for by George and Anna Backer. The bells were placed in the tower in 1914, when the spire was finished.

The church stands on Grand Boulevard at the Saint Louis University campus in Midtown, a short walk from the Grand metro station. Enter from the Grand Boulevard side, where a wide flight of steps leads up to the recessed pointed portal. The nave is on the upper level, reached by stairs from the lower church.

The upper church was modeled on St. Colman's Cathedral in Cobh, Ireland, at the direction of pastor Henry C. Bronsgeest, S.J., after the original architect Thomas Walsh died. Chicago architect Henry Switzer completed the work. The spire was added only in 1914, when bells were also placed in the tower.