Agora Grand Event Center
St. Patrick's Church was a Roman Catholic church in Lewiston, Maine. Its cornerstone was laid on 24 July 1887 by the Right Reverend Bishop Healy,[1] and held its last mass in October, 2009.[2] At 220 feet to its taller spire, it is the tallest structure in Maine,[3] although it does not count as the tallest building because the spire is not inhabited. It was purchased in March, 2014, by developer Andrew Knight.[4]
In 2014, Knight converted the former St. Patrick's Church Rectory, also known as the Albert Kelsey Mansion, into a boutique hotel called the Inn at the Agora.[5]
The former church contains a mortuary chapel and basement crypt in which the church's original builder and priest, Monsignor Thomas Wallace, was buried from 1906 to 2007, when his body was exhumed and moved to Mt. Hope Cemetery. In 2015, Knight converted the former crypt into a novelty annex of the Inn at the Agora, called the Hotel Crypt, reportedly the world's first 'crypt hotel room.'[6]
The former church is currently under renovation with plans to open in May, 2016, as the Agora Grand Event Center, specializing in conventions, celebrations, and weddings.[7]
1896 description
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An 1896 account in the The Sacred Heart Review describes the structure:
St. Patrick's Church, a beautiful Gothic structure of brick, with rockfaced granite foundations, has an unsurpassed situation, as it faces directly on the public park and stands commandingly over the lower levels of the city, surmounted as it is by two graceful spires that rise to heights of 220 and 160 feet respectively. It is 180 feet long and 65 feet wide, and has a comfortable seating capacity of 1,000. It is a seven-bay edifice, its brick buttresses being doubly barged in cut granite ; and the side walls are further trimmed in white North Jay granite at the springs and tips of the window-arches.[8]
References
- ↑ Sadliers' catholic directory, almanac and clergy list quarterly. D.&J. Sadlier & Co. 1888. pp. 28–.
- ↑ St. Patrick's Holds Final Mass
- ↑ "St. Patrick's Church". The Lewiston Daily Sun. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- ↑ Zoning Change Sought for Lewiston Church Property
- ↑ Inn at the Agora brings new life to Lewiston's St. Patrick's Rectory
- ↑ 'World's first' crypt hotel room opens in Maine
- ↑ Renovations underway at Agora Grand Events Center
- ↑ "ST. PATRICK'S PARISH, LEWISTON.". The Sacred Heart Review 16 (7). 15 August 1896. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
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