Third Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)
demolished Catholic cathedral in Minnesota
The third Cathedral of Saint Paul was a Catholic cathedral in Saint Paul, Minnesota, built from 1854 to 1858. It served as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul from 1858 to 1914.
History
Construction
Not long after the construction of the second Cathedral of Saint Paul in 1851, Bishop Joseph Crétin realized it was too small for the growing community. Construction of a third cathedral, at the corner of St. Peter and Sixth Streets in Downtown St. Paul, started in 1854. The cornerstone was laid on July 27, 1856, by John Timon. After having been delayed by the Panic of 1857 and Crétin's death—the foundation walls had not yet progressed beyond the water table at that time—the church was completed in 1858. The church was built of stone, measured 175 feet (53 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide, but had practically no ornamentation in an effort to cut costs. Thomas Grace was the bishop at the time the cathedral was completed.
“Third Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)” enters the record as demolished Catholic cathedral in Minnesota. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Third, Cathedral and Saint can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131437695. Authority coordinates are 44.946, -93.096. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1854, 1858, 1914 and 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “Third Cathedral of Saint Paul (Minnesota)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.