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Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » Gulf Coast » Bay City to Edna » Victoria (Victoria County) » Nazareth Academy

Nazareth Academy

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1904, Jules Leffland. 105 W. Church Ave.
  • (Photograph by Gerald Moorhead )

Built on the homesite of Don Martín de León, which his widow, Doña Patricia de la Garza de León, bequeathed to the Diocese of Galveston in 1849, the former Nazareth Academy is Leffland's masterpiece. Elevated high above Church Street (which, midblock, begins its westward descent toward the Guadalupe River) , the two-story academy building is centered on an advancing tower and framed at either end by advancing wings. Corner quoins, scrolled gables and dormers, and a tiered octagonal cupola atop the central tower give the buff brick building an Old World look that is quite captivating. Nazareth Academy was founded by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, a French order dedicated to women's education. The building is now used by the parish as housing for the Sisters of Charity and a day care center.

The block of S. Bridge Street, diagonally across from Nazareth Academy, contains a lineup of elite houses, some still occupied by descendants of the families who built them. The Thomas M. O'Connor House (1885) at 303 S. Bridge Street is a two-story I-house by Jules Leffland, “Tara”-ized in the mid-1930s by his son Kai J. Leffland. Next door at number 301 is the towered villa-type house of lawyer and naturalist J. D. Mitchell of 1893. It occupies the homesite of Irish immigrant Juan J. Linn, the last alcalde of Mexican Guadalupe Victoria and the first mayor of Texan Victoria.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

St. Mary Catholic Church
Building (J. E. Ryan Building)
Herman Krehmeier House
Clark House
Julia Teal Murphy House

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Nazareth Academy", [Victoria, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-VI8.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 480-481.

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