The First Catholic Church in Bossier Parish: Christ the King, Part 1

September 15 through October 15 marks Hispanic Heritage Month. Did you know that the first Catholic church in Bossier Parish is home of the largest number of Spanish-speaking parishioners? Christ the King Catholic Church in downtown Bossier City is part of the Diocese of Shreveport. The church was built in 1940 at the corner of Barksdale Blvd. and McCormick St. in old downtown Bossier City, making it the first Catholic church built in Bossier Parish. The building was a handsome white brick veneer church in the Spanish Mission style. In the church’s early history, this structure was its main expression of Spanish culture.

Louisiana was founded by the French as an explicitly Catholic colony, but it ultimately existed under many flags, including those of Spain, France, Great Britain, and the United States. When Louisiana became a US territory following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Protestantism was allowed into the territory. Multitudes of Protestants came, with many finding their home in north Louisiana, while the Catholicism of the early French and Spanish colonies of southern Louisiana, and of Natchitoches, Louisiana’s earliest settlement, remained.

Early attempts to bring a Catholic Church to northwest Louisiana came from the Diocese of Natchitoches and by priests recruited from France to build up this diocese. One of these French priests was Father John Pierre, who had established a church parish on Bayou Pierre in DeSoto Parish, but who recognized that Shreveport on the Red River was to become the larger community. Father Pierre got permission from his bishop to settle in Shreveport and found scattered Catholic families of mostly Irish, German and Italian immigrants. He concluded that because these families had not had a home parish available to them for decades, they became accustomed to being “unchurched.” Father Pierre persisted, though, and in 1857 he was able to raise enough money to build the first Catholic church in Shreveport, a small wood frame building near the corner of Milam and McNeill streets, called Holy Trinity Catholic Church. As part of the newly-formed Diocese of Alexandria (1910), the Holy Trinity church parish covered a large area of northwest Louisiana, including as late as 1926, Catholics in the civil parishes of Bossier, Claiborne and Webster, plus downtown Shreveport and north Caddo Parish.

In the 1930’s the Bishop of Alexandra, Daniel Desmond began a building program within the diocese which coincided with a time of growth for the population of Bossier City, including the construction of Barksdale Air Field. On October 5th of 1940, the Shreveport Journal announced that work had begun the previous on the first Catholic church ever to be erected in the parish of Bossier on a lot the size of one square city block, two blocks from Bossier City’s downtown.

This new church would get its own priest (and a rectory), the Rev. Milburn J. Broussard, who was serving at Barksdale Field. Father Broussard supervised the construction of the new 400-seat church and rectory in addition to being in charge of “organizing the Catholics of Bosier Parish.” The project was very much a local effort, with construction by the Bossier City firm Westerfield Brothers, elaborate iron work of the altar canopy by parishioner and Bossier welder Athos Guillot, exquisite Christmas and Easter altar backdrops using florals and special lighting from SSgt. Ralph T. Adams, a former interior designer from Chicago stationed at Barksdale in Personnel Services and the well-known Bossier Parish Home Demonstration agent Lettie Van Landingham with her home demonstration assistant and Christ the King parishioner, Mrs. J.A. Quiggles, undertaking the innovative landscape design and garden to beautify the church’s lot.

The church was considered complete by January 1st, 1941, and was dedicated in February. Those are the formal dates, but according to church history, the parish joyfully held the first religious service in the church before the end of 1940, Christmas Midnight Mass.

In next week’s history article, read about Christ the King Catholic Church’s growth and changes in more recent decades. The History Center always appreciates donations of photos and documents of Bossier Parish churches and other local institutions, and we are especially looking to add items from the Hispanic communities of Bossier Parish. If you have stories or photos or other items to donate or allow us to copy for our collections, be sure to visit or contact the History Center. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Photo of first church building of Christ the King Catholic Church, Bossier City, soon after it was built. Shreveport Times, February 2, 1941
• Rev. Milburn J. Broussard. Photo from The Planters Press, Bossier City, Louisiana, November 15, 1945

Article by: Pam Carlisle