McDonnell Hall

McDonnell Hall, formerly Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Chapel and St. Martin of Tours Church, is a historic church building on the campus of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 2020 East San Antonio Street in San Jose, California. Built in 1914, this building now serves as the parish hall for the church. It is historically important for its association with labor and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who attended church in this building, and conducted labor and community organizing activities here. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.[2]

Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Chapel (1953-1960)
McDonnell Hall
Location2020 East San Antonio St., San Jose, California
Coordinates37°21′09.2″N 121°50′40.7″W
Arealess than one acre
NRHP reference No.100000836
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 23, 2016[1]
Designated NHLDecember 23, 2016[2]

Description and history

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is located northeast of downtown San Jose in its Mayfair neighborhood, on the south side of East San Antonio Street east of its junction with South Sunset Avenue. The main church building is a six-sided modern structure, built in 1968. McDonnell Hall stands in the parking area on the east side of the church building. It is a basically rectangular single-story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and stucco exterior. The north-facing short facade houses its main entrance, sheltered by a gabled portico. The interior has been substantially altered for use from its original religious functions, to house meeting spaces, a kitchen, classrooms, and storage.[3]

McDonnell Hall was built in 1914 to a design by San Jose architect Louis Lenzen, and was originally located in West San Jose, where it housed the congregation called St. Martin of Tours. In 1923, this congregation added wings to each side of the building, giving it a cruciform shape, and it was again renovated in 1948. In 1953, the St. Martin's congregation sold the building to the Roman Catholic parish of St. Patrick's, which wanted to establish a mission in Mayfair to better serve the large Mexican and Mexican-American Catholic population that lived there. The building was broken down and reconstructed near its present location, and from 1953 to 1968 it housed the growing Our Lady of Guadalupe congregation. The building was formally upgraded from a chapel to a church in 1960. After construction of the modern church, the building was moved 450 feet (140 m) northwest, in order to accommodate the city's development of Mayfair Park. It was moved and deconsecrated in 1974-75.[3]

The building is historically significant for its association with labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. Chavez, a Roman Catholic, was a friend of Father Donald McDonnell, the priest who first led Our Lady of Guadalupe, and helped in the relocation of the building and its reconsecration as a Roman Catholic chapel in 1953. The chapel became home to Chavez' chapter of the Community Service Organization, an important training ground for his later activism. Chavez moved from San Jose to Oxnard in 1958.[3]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "Weekly list of actions, March 3, 2017". National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  3. "Draft NHL nomination for Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Chapel" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
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