Father Bernard Donnelly

Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, bluffs, stone-cutting, masonry, Walnut Street, “The Builder”

“The Builder”

 

 

 

Bernard Donnelly, an incredible, straight-out-of-County-Cavan, Ireland man was both a civil engineer and ordained priest. ‘Twas only natural that his career paths converged into aiding the needy. Most commonly remembered for the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Kansas City, Mo., our golden-domed landmark, Donnelly’s works were many and always good.

 

 

 

 

 

He worked in civil engineering first in Dublin, Ireland, then in Liverpool, England. It was in 1839 Bernard Donnelly voyaged to the United States, but he wouldn’t reach the Town of Kansas until the 1850s. He landed in New York and made his way to Ohio, where he taught at Ohio State University. He’d then teach at St. Mary’s Seminary in Missouri, and as soon as his work day ended, his studying began. Theology was the topic, and Bernard Donnelly became Father Bernard Donnelly, ordained in St. Louis, Mo. in 1845.

 

Immediately following, Father Donnelly was shipped to Independence, Mo. as the resident pastor. He resided there, building a loyal following through his leadership and care, and traveled all over the area until 1857, when the good priest himself was appointed resident pastor in a little place called the Town of Kansas.

 

 The population had in just five years nonupled – which means, between 1855 and 1860, had multiplied to nine time its original size. What a funny word. The town of Kansas needed more housing, more buildings, streets – the works. But the limestone bluffs, some upwards of 70 and 80 feet high, stood in the way.

 

Father Donnelly’s experience in civil engineering and stone cutting – a blessing, I’d say – spearheaded a gouging, cutting, paving, back-breaking expansion through the very limestone. The streets carved into the bluffs merited the Town of Kansas the moniker “Gully Town” for more than 30 years. He aided 300 Connaught, Ireland immigrants to the city for the bluffwork.

 

Thanks to the Father, for example, Walnut St. in Kansas City went from this:

To this in just a few short decades:

 

 

Not only did he essentially build this city from the ground up – and the Catholic cathedral in Kansas City, he also built and established St. Teresa’s Academy, two orphanages, St. Mary’s cemetery and a school in the West Bottoms that he ran for decades – it still stands today at the corner of Wyoming and 14th Streets.

 

“With Father Bernard Donnelly,” wrote Carrie Westlake Whitney in her Kansas City, Missouri, Its History and its People, “began the modern history of the Catholic church in Kansas City.”