The First Universalist Church was built with a Greek Revival design in 1854. In 1877, French Canadians purchased the city’s oldest church and renamed it Our Lady of Lourdes. This was a tribute to the Marian apparition that had recently occurred in Lourdes, France. In the foreground is the Merriam Street Bridge. The truss bridge has a 147 foot span across the Mississippi River. This was part of the Broadway Avenue Bridge when it was constructed by the King Iron Bridge Company in 1887.
