The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic church located at 48 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The current church building was completed in 1873 and is the oldest church in Atlanta, as well as one of the oldest standing buildings in the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The church traces its history back to the 1840s, when missionary priests from Augusta and Macon would hold services in the houses of Irish Catholic immigrants who lived in the city. By 1848, the Catholic population in the area had grown enough to warrant its own dedicated building, and a wooden structure was constructed in 1848 and dedicated as the Church of the Immaculate Conception the following year. During the American Civil War, the church's pastor, Thomas O'Reilly, convinced officials in the Union Army to spare the building and several nearby structures from destruction during their occupation of Atlanta. However, the church was severely damaged during the war and as the congregation grew during the Reconstruction era, it became evident that a larger building was needed. More information...
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