St. Mary Cathedral Basilica (Galveston, Texas)

In 1845, The church's Bishop  purchased 500,000 bricks from Belgium to be used to build a larger church. Construction of the new St. Mary's began in 1847. The cathedral basilica is notable as being one of the few buildings in Galveston that survived the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane with only minimal damage. The Gothic building is made of  
Imported Belgian brick and mortar.  It measures 120 ft by 75 ft and has a spire 80 ft high.

St. Mary Cathedral Basilica is a Catholic church situated in Galveston, Texas. It is the primary cathedral of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and the mother church of Catholics in Texas, as well as a minor basilica. It started as a small wooden-framed building in Galvestan in 1842 and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Because St. Mary Cathedral was the first Catholic cathedral in the state of Texas, and the original Diocese of Galveston encompassed the entire state, it has the distinction of being the mother church of all the Catholic dioceses in Texas.

St. Mary Cathedral was named a Texas state historic landmark in 1968 and a national historic landmark in 1973. In 1979, in recognition of the cathedral's importance to the community and the state of Texas, as well as the historical impact it had on Catholicism in the state of Texas, Pope John Paul II elevated St. Mary Cathedral to the status of a minor basilica