![](/sites/default/files/pictures/full/no-image-360.png)
Clayton began the design of this Gothic church in 1891 for the once-expansive Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston. By the time of its completion in 1898, St. Patrick parish fell within the boundaries of the newly created Diocese of Dallas. Clayton incorporated elements he used in the numerous Gothic Revival churches he built in Texas, Louisiana, and other southern states: a plan with a centered, single tower with pointed arches, buttressed piers, and raised brickwork. With its cross-gabled corner towers adjacent to the front tower, St. Patrick bears similarity to the architect’s larger and more elaborate St. Francis Xavier Cathedral (1899) in Alexandria, Louisiana. St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sherman (MC14), built eight years later, uses the same compositional elements. In 1911, St. Patrick was destroyed by fire but was rebuilt the following year according to the architect’s original plans.