Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Catholic cathedral in Lake Charles, Louisiana

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is a church with Romanesque Revival architecture built in red brick and marked by a square tower. The interior follows a three-aisle cross layout with Gothic marble altars positioned in the sanctuary.

St. Francis de Sales, the first Catholic church in Lake Charles, was built in 1858 as a mission chapel; the parish was organized in 1869. After a hurricane damaged the church in 1879, the parish renamed itself Immaculate Conception and completed a new building in 1881. That church and neighboring buildings burned on April 23, 1910. The current church, designed by New Orleans firm Favrot & Livaudais, was completed in 1913, and the parish became a cathedral in 1980.

The Carrara marble image of the Virgin Mary was crowned by pontifical decree signed in 2012; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò presided at the coronation on August 22, 2013. The parish, founded in 1869, keeps the image as its namesake devotion, and the 2019 renovation renewed the interior around it.

The cathedral stands at the corner of Ryan and Kirby streets in downtown Lake Charles, with the attached rectory and garage sharing its historic listing. It remains an active parish church, so touring is best arranged around Mass times rather than assumed. The 1973 brick wing on the northeast side holds a small chapel and opens onto a courtyard between it and the church.

The three Gothic marble altars came from a church in Salt Lake City that was being remodeled, and Immaculate Conception acquired them in 1923. They were made for a building far from Louisiana, so their arrival in Lake Charles depended on shipping heavy stone across the country. Look for them in the sanctuary.