Holy Cross Episcopal
 

Holy Cross Episcopal Church
875 Cotton Street

 The dark red bricks of irregular sizes were originally covered with stucco, which gives them their rough finish today. Charles W. Bulger designed the structure in the Gothic Revival style. It is a larger version of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, which Bulger built in Lake Charles in 1896. The Garson Brothers oversaw the construction of Holy Cross Church in 1905.¹

The building housed St. Mark’s Episcopal Church until 1953 when the congregation built a new church. The newly formed Holy Cross congregation then bought it for their use. ²When St. Mark’s moved, they left little in the church for the next congregation. A temporary altar was made in Shreveport, and eventually stayed in the church for thirteen years. A more permanent altar was installed on December 6, 1967. It was a memorial for Dr. James M. Owens, a long-time rector when the church belonged to St. Mark’s. A pulpit was quickly built and covered with green velvet; a bronze pulpit was later given to the church in honor of Dr. Joseph H. Spearing, a former rector of St. Mark’s.³
 

            The small chapel contains some antebellum furnishings from the first St. Mark’s Church at Fannin and Market Streets: three of the original windows, a communion rail, an altar, and pews. These were installed when the church was built. The cornerstone from this early St. Mark’s church is found in the chapel wall. The rose window, made of French glass, also came from the early church. The bell came from a plantation, which was no longer using the bell.⁴

            Bricks from the tower scattered into Cotton and Texas Streets when the church was struck by lightning in June of 1993.⁵

Cremations are buried without urns in the garden next to the church, and a plaque within the church lists the names of those interred.⁶

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Parish of Caddo 2004©