Basilica, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1920s Postcard Reproduction

Nice view of the Basilica at 16th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, from the 1920s. The Basilica of Saint Mary replaced a previous church, the Church of the Immaculate Conception. It was originally built in 1871, located at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue North, but the expanding warehouse district was engulfing the church property. Archbishop John Ireland announced plans for a new Church of the Immaculate Conception on Christmas Day, 1903. In 1905, Lawrence S. Donaldson donated a one-block parcel on Hennepin Avenue near Loring Park for the new church buildings. The design was awarded to Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, the designer of the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Masqueray designed it in a Beaux-Arts style. The groundbreaking was held on August 7, 1907, with foundation construction continuing through May 1908. The cornerstone was laid on May 31, 1908, with a ceremony involving 30,000 Catholics, twenty bishops, 300 priests and seminarians from the Saint