Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Established 1890
Situated on land purchased from Vincente Martinez-Ybor with a donation from Henry Flagler, Father Philippe de Carriere, S.J. purchased this land for the local diocese to minister to the influx of Spanish speaking immigrants. In September 1890 a small wood-frame church named Our Lady of Mercy opened on this site. The following year the Sisters of St. Joseph opened St. Joseph's Academy next door. By 1922 a separate church, Most Holy Name, was started about 8 blocks away to care for the growing Italian presence in Ybor City. Care of both churches was transferred to the Salesians in 1926 and then to the Redemptorists in 1934. In 1937 the original church was razed as the present Romanesque church was built under the title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In 1944 the School Sisters of Notre Dame took over O.L.P.H. Academy until its closing in 1975, the result of the mechanization of the cigar industry and urban renewal.
Marker can be reached from the intersection of East 11th Avenue and Angel Oliva Senior Street, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
