Emmanuel Louis Masqueray collection

Emmanuel Louis Masqueray was born in Dieppe, France, on September 10, 1861. He studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1879 to 1884, receiving several awards for his designs. He immigrated to the United States in 1887 to work for the firm of Carrere & Hastings in New York City. Five years later, he joined the office of Richard Morris Hunt, where he helped design many notable buildings, including the Breakers for William Vanderbilt in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1897, he left the Hunt office to work for Warren & Wetmore, also in New York City. Four years later, he was appointed Chief of Design at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, a position he held for three years. He resigned shortly after the fair opened in 1904 and was asked by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul to come to Minnesota and design a new cathedral for the city.

Masqueray arrived in St. Paul in 1905 and remained there until his death. He designed about two dozen parish churches for Catholic and Protestant congregations in the Upper Midwest as well as three more cathedrals, of which two were built in Wichita, Kansas, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He also designed a few residences and several parochial schools, all for the Catholic archdiocese of St. Paul. Masqueray died in St. Paul on May 26, 1917.