St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
Established 1883
In thanksgiving for a prayer answered, Judge Edmund F. Dunne began the Catholic Colony of San Antonio in 1882 and built its first church the following year at this site. Reminiscent of what he saw in Europe, the church (rather than a municipal building) was intentionally situated at the center of the town on the large plaza and by 1884 a schoolhouse had been added next door. The present church replaced the original wooden one in 1911 and is one the oldest known precast hollow-block structures in Florida. While most of the heart of pine pews are originals salvaged from the 1883 church, the twin colonial towers were added in 1954. The wall and adjacent Lourdes grotto are of native stone and the antique stained glass windows were produced locally. Staffed for over 100 years by Benedictine monks from nearby St. Leo Abbey, care of the parish was returned to diocesan priests in 1996.
Marker is on Massachusetts Avenue (St. Anthony Way) west of Joe Herrmann Drive, on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
