Holy Rosary Church, Neo-Gothic Catholic church in Tacoma, United States.
Holy Rosary Church is a Roman Catholic church building in Tacoma, Washington, designed by parishioner C. Frank Mahon of the firm Lundberg & Mahon and completed in 1920. It is a city landmark visible from Interstate 5 and has been called Tacoma's Notre Dame. Water damage in 2018 left the building unsafe, and it has stood closed since services ceased in August 2020.
German-speaking Benedictine monks from Minnesota founded the parish in 1891 and built the current stone structure in 1920 to replace an aging wooden building that had become unsafe. This replacement marked a shift to a more permanent architectural form.
The parish was founded in 1891 for Tacoma's German-speaking community, and Benedictine monks from St. John's Abbey in Minnesota served it until 1998. The building has been closed to worship since August 2020, when Archbishop Paul D. Etienne ordered all parish services and ministries to cease. In 2024 the parish recommended relegating it to profane but not sordid use, a decree now under recourse review at the Vatican.
The church is closed to worship: Archbishop Paul D. Etienne ordered all parish services and ministries to cease at the end of August 2020, and in 2024 he issued a decree relegating the building to profane but not sordid use. A recourse against that decree is under review by the Vatican, so the building cannot be visited as an active church. It is visible from Interstate 5.
In 2024 the parish of Pope St. John XXIII recommended that the church be relegated to profane but not sordid use, meaning it could no longer host divine worship; Archbishop Paul D. Etienne issued a degree agreeing, and a recourse against it is still under review by the Vatican. The building has stood on the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's list of most endangered places since 2020.
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