The Gothic Revival cathedral's cornerstone was laid by Bishop Lenihan on August 12, 1906, dedication of the church taking place nearly two years later on March 1, 1908.
A large, beautiful, brick structure standing on a tall stone foundation, one might think St. Patrick was destined to become a cathedral. Unequal twin towers frame the front elevation, the left, northwest, tower having a tall spire covered in metal roofing and topped by a gold coloured cross. The octagonal spire has four vented dormers and is surrounded by four smaller pinnacles on the tower's corners, each octagonal and having eight small dormers. The opposite tower is slightly lower at the top of the brickwork and was given a crenellated parapet in place of a spire.
Both towers, as well as the side walls of the sanctuary, are buttressed with stone caps on buttress tops and steps. Extensive corbelling adorns most cornices, creating a very appealing, if somewhat out of the ordinary, effect. All openings in the building are Gothic arched, save for a large round window in the sanctuary's front gable end. Below it, a rather large narthex extends out the front of the sanctuary. Copious amounts of stained glass and several quite large windows are to be found throughout.
As part of a series on Yellowstone County attractions, the Billings Gazette included a story on St. Patrick Co-Cathedral, once the tallest building in the town. A small part of the story is to be seen below.
YelCo 52: St. Patrick, once Billings'
tallest building, still a giant in city's culture
From the
52 reasons to love Yellowstone County series
By MATT HOFFMAN | Mar 28, 2015
When St. Patrick Co-Cathedral was built in 1905, its spire topped any other building in Billings.
It stood out not just for its architecture, but as a center for the Billings community — Catholic or not. And while its spire is now dwarfed by larger buildings, the church and town have grown side by side.
St. Patrick holds community events like concerts in addition to serving as the mother church of Billings Catholicism.
Catholics were among Montana’s pioneers. St. Mary’s Mission in the Bitterroot valley was the to-be state’s first permanent settlement in 1841, and Catholics were a major demographic among Billings' founders.
St. Patrick wasn’t even the first church in Billings.
In the infancy of white settlement in the area, Catholics simply met in a private home, said Father John Houlihan, a former pastor of St. Patrick who now oversees hospital and jail ministry.
They banded together to build St. Joachim’s — which stood about two blocks from St. Patrick — in 1887, on land near North 33rd Street and 1st Avenue North, purchased for all of $100.
Plans emerged for St. Patrick, and, after significant fundraising, the cornerstone of the church was laid in 1906. In what would become a theme, the parish tried to preserve pieces of its history; stained-glass windows in two areas behind the altar are from St. Joachim’s.
Read on at the Billings Gazette