Top 10 Most Famous Churches in America

Top 10 most famous churches in the US

Churches are more than just religious sites; they also showcase some of the gorgeous structures in the world. Most people think of beautiful churches spread around Europe, but the United States has its fair share as well.

The gorgeous churches are spread across the country, meaning that no matter where you live, there should be one nearby to visit.

You can even take a cross-country road trip that will show you the most gorgeous and sacred architecture.

Let's take a look at some of themost famous churches in the USA.

The List of Top 10 most famous churches in the USA

10. The Cathedral of Saint Andrew, Honolulu, Hawaii

9. Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Augustine, Florida

8. Wayfarers Chapel, Rancho Palos Verdes, California

7. Saint Mary's Catholic Church, High Hill, Texas

6. Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France, New Orleans, Louisiana

5. Cathedral of Saint Paul, St. Paul, Minnesota

4. St. Mary of the Angels, Chicago, Illinois

3. Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

2. Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, New York

1. Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

What are the most famous churches in America?

10. The Cathedral of Saint Andrew, Honolulu, Hawaii

Photo: Wikipedia

The Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, also commonly known as St. Andrew's Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church in the United States located in the State of Hawaii. Originally the seat of the Anglican Church of Hawaii, it is now the home of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. It is affiliated with St. Andrew's Schools, which consists of the main girls' K-12 school, the coeducational Queen Emma Preschool and a boys' preparatory school (elementary).

Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, his queen consort, were devout members of the Church of England led by their good friend Queen Victoria. At their request, Thomas Nettleship Staley was appointed bishop in 1862. Inspired to build a place of worship in the Anglican tradition, Kamehameha IV commissioned the construction of what would later become the Cathedral of Saint Andrew. However, the king died on the feast day of Saint Andrew in 1863 before ground-breaking. Kamehameha V, the king's brother, took over the project and laid the cornerstone in honor of his predecessor on March 5, 1867. The cathedral was designed by the London architects William Slater and R. H. Carpenter, and the building process was overseen by their chief assistant Benjamin Ingelow.

The Cathedral of Saint Andrew was built in the French Gothic architectural style, shipped in several pre-fabricated pieces from England. The western facade has a window of hand-blown stained glass that reaches from the floor to the eaves, depicting the European explorers that visited the Hawaiian islands.

There are only three other cathedrals in the Hawaiian Islands — Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

It is located on Queen Emma Street, between Beretania Street and Queen Emma Square. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Oahu on July 2, 1973 as site 73000663.

9. Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Augustine, Florida

Photo: Memorial Presbyterian Church

The Presbyterian congregation in St. Augustine was organized in June 1824, during the Territorial Period of Florida’s history. Through the efforts of Reverend Dr. William McWhir, a minister with the Presbytery of Georgia, fourteen members formed the Presbyterian congregation. With the congregation operating on its own, Dr. McWhir returned to Georgia. The congregation immediately began making plans to construct a house of worship, and in January 1825, construction began on a sanctuary and continued for five years. The cost of the building totaled $5,000 with an additional $500 for the property on South St. George Street (located across the street from the current Cathedral Parish School gymnasium). By 1830, the building was finished and the congregation continue to grow its membership.

Over the years the church building served many needs within the community. During the Civil War, the Union army used the building for military purposes, and services were not held in the building. At the end of the war, the church resumed weekly services. In 1866 the church purchased an existing home at the corner of Hypolita and St. George Streets to serve as the home of the minister and his family. The location placed the minister in a prominent location in the old city, reflective of the minister’s place in St. Augustine society. The Manse (term used for the residence of the Presbyterian minister) hosted a number of important visitors to the city as well as local organizations.

8. Wayfarers Chapel, Rancho Palos Verdes, California

Photo: Wayfarers Chapel Homepage

Wayfarers Chapel, also known as "The Glass Church" is located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It is noted for its unique organic architecture and location on cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Swedenborgian Church of North America and serves as a memorial to the 18th century scientist and theosopher, Emanuel Swedenborg.

The church was designed by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) in the late 1940s and was built between 1949 and 1951. Wright departed from the tradition of using masonry in order to "achieve a delicate enclosure that allows the surrounding landscape to define the sacred space". Additions were built in later years, including a tower and a visitor center, the latter of which had been lost in a landslide during the 1960s.

As with many of Wright's buildings, the chapel features geometric designs and incorporates the natural landscape into the design. The Wayfarers Chapel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Because of its scenic location, the church is very popular for weddings.

7. Saint Mary's Catholic Church, High Hill, Texas

Photo: Jason DeCamp Photography

St. Mary's Catholic Church is High Hill's main attraction.

As one of Fayette County's Painted Churches, it has some of the best examples of faux-finish woodwork and stained-glass.

The grayish blue stone capping the buttresses and accenting the brick was quarried from the nearby town of Muldoon.

This church has stained-glass windows, ornate paintings, and gorgeous designs, giving it the designation of Queen of the Painted Churches. As such, it is a popular stop along the tour of Painted Churches of Texas. This particular church is known for its beauty not only because of its architecture, but for its unique paintings as well, which require a great deal of restoration and conservation work to keep them in top shape. This means that when you go on a tour or attend services, the paintings will look as beautiful as they did years ago.

6. Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France, New Orleans, Louisiana

Photo: Flickr

The Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, also called St. Louis Cathedral (French: Cathédrale-Basilique de Saint-Louis, Roi-de-France, Spanish: Catedral-Basílica de San Luis, Rey de Francia), is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans and is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States. It is dedicated to Saint Louis, also known as King Louis IX of France. The first church on the site was built in 1718; the third, under the Spanish rule, built in 1789, was raised to cathedral rank in 1793. The original St. Louis Cathedral was burned during the great fire of 1788 and was expanded and largely rebuilt and completed in the 1850s, with little of the 1789 structure remaining.

Saint Louis Cathedral is in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, on the Place John Paul II (French: Place Jean-Paul II), a promenaded section of Chartres Street (rue de Chartres) that runs for one block between St. Peter Street (rue Saint-Pierre) on the upriver boundary and St. Ann Street (rue Sainte-Anne) on the downriver boundary. It is located next to Jackson Square and facing the Mississippi River in the heart of New Orleans, situated between the historic buildings of the Cabildo and the Presbytère.

The cathedral is said to be haunted by Fr. Antonio de Sedella, more commonly known as Père Antoine. He was a priest at the cathedral and his body is buried within the church. He is said to walk the alley named after him next to the cathedral in the early mornings. Accounts of his apparitions by parishioners and tourists claim that he appears during Christmas Midnight Mass near the left side of the altar, holding a candle. The cathedral is also said to be haunted by Père Dagobert, a friar who resided in the church. It is said that his voice can be heard chanting the Kyrie on rainy days.

5. Cathedral of Saint Paul, St. Paul, Minnesota

Photo: Wikipedia

The Cathedral of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. It is the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis; the Co-Cathedral is the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. One of the most distinctive cathedrals in the United States, it sits on Cathedral Hill overlooking downtown St. Paul and features a distinctive copper-clad dome. It is dedicated to Paul the Apostle, who is also the namesake of the City of St. Paul. The current building opened in 1915 as the fourth cathedral of the archdiocese to bear this name. On March 25, 2009, it was designated as the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican. It is the third-largest Catholic cathedral and sixth-largest church in the United States.

The dome of the cathedral is 76 feet (23 m) in diameter and 186 feet (57 m) high. Warm-colored paint and gold leaf were added during a major renovation of the dome in the 1950s. The exterior walls of the cathedral are Rockville granite from St. Cloud, Minnesota (from the Clark quarry[7]). The interior walls are American Travertine from Mankato, Minnesota. The interior columns are made of several types of marble.

The interior is illuminated by twenty-four stained glass windows featuring angelic choirs. There is also a rose window in the transept designed by Charles Connick. Electric lighting was installed in 1940.

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4. St. Mary of the Angels, Chicago, Illinois

Photo: Architecture

Saint Mary of the Angels is a historic church of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

Located at 1850 North Hermitage Avenue in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood, it is an example of the Polish Cathedral style of churches. Along with St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Hyacinth Basilica, St. Hedwig, St. Wenceslaus, and Holy Trinity it is one of the monumental Polish churches visible from the Kennedy Expressway.

From 1899 until 1990, the parish was administered by priests of the Congregation of the Resurrection. Since January 1991, it has been administered by the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.

The church regularly makes appearances in The Dresden Files series of books by Jim Butcher.

Located in the heart of Bucktown and open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, Sunday Masses are celebrated in English, Polish and Spanish. Every week, hundreds of area residents come to worship, attend classes and events. The priests of Opus Dei continue to oversee the parish.

The area around the church is often referred to as 'Marianowo' by Poles. In recent years, the ethnic character of St. Mary of the Angels parish has undergone a gradual change from an exclusively Polish parish to one that is multicultural and multiracial, as the neighborhood first witnessed an influx of Hispanic immigrants in the early 1970s and then urban professionals in the 1990s as the area began to gentrify.

3. Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

Photo: Wikipedia

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, also known as the Saint Louis Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Completed in 1914, it is the mother church of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the seat of its archbishop, currently Mitchell T. Rozanski. The cathedral is named for Saint Louis and was designated a basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

The cathedral was built as a replacement for the previous Saint Louis Cathedral, now the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, located along the Mississippi River. Although workers began clearing ground for the building on May 1, 1907, dedication of the Cathedral and its first Mass did not take place until October 18, 1914, when the superstructure was complete. Consecration of the church took place more than a decade later on June 29, 1926. The church is known for its large mosaic installation (which is one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere), burial crypts, and the addition of an outdoor sculpture to promote racial harmony.

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2. Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, New York

Photo: Getty Images

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, between West 110th Street (also known as Cathedral Parkway) and West 113th Street.

The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes and work interruptions. The original design, in the Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, began construction in 1892. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a Gothic Revival design. The completion of the nave was delayed until 1941 due to various funding shortfalls, and little progress has occurred since then, except for an addition to the tower at the nave's southwest corner. After a large fire damaged part of the cathedral in 2001, it was renovated and rededicated in 2008. The towers above the western facade, as well as the southern transept and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed.

Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world's sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral. The floor area of St. John's is 121,000 sq ft (11,200 m2), spanning a length of 601 feet (183 m), while the roof height of the nave is 177 feet (54 m). Since the cathedral's interior is so large, it has been used for hundreds of events and art exhibitions. In addition, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine has been involved in various advocacy initiatives throughout its history.

1. Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

Photo: Washington

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The structure is of Neo-Gothic design closely modeled on English Gothic style of the late fourteenth century. It is the second-largest church building in the United States, and the fourth-tallest structure in Washington, D.C. The cathedral is the seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Bruce Curry, and the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde. Over 270,000 people visit the structure annually.

The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, under the first seven Bishops of Washington, erected the cathedral under a charter passed by the United States Congress on January 6, 1893. Construction began on September 29, 1907, when the foundation stone was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and a crowd of more than 20,000, and ended 83 years later when the "final finial" was placed in the presence of President George H. W. Bush in 1990. Decorative work, such as carvings and statuary, is ongoing as of 2011. The Foundation is the legal entity of which all institutions on the Cathedral Close are a part; its corporate staff provides services for the institutions to help enable their missions, conducts work of the Foundation itself that is not done by the other entities, and serves as staff for the Board of Trustees.

The cathedral stands at Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues in the northwest quadrant of Washington. It is an associate member of the recently organized inter-denominational Washington Theological Consortium. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, it was ranked third on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

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