Founding and initial church building In January 1936, Pope Pius XI appointed Bishop
Gerald O'Hara as
bishop of the
Diocese of Savannah. At that time, all of Georgia was part of this diocese. Shortly after becoming bishop, O'Hara recognized the significance of
Atlanta to the diocese, and he soon expressed a desire to establish a
parish directly to the north of the city. During the 1930s, despite the effects of the ongoing
Great Depression, the
Atlanta metropolitan area continued to experience steady growth, and just north of the city limits, the district of
Buckhead was developing from a largely rural area to a populous suburban one. As a result, in 1936, O'Hara, on behalf of the
diocese, purchased a property in Buckhead that a new church could be created on. The property had previously been under the ownership of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. A
Greek Revival mansion on the property, which they referred to as their "Imperial Palace", had served as their headquarters starting in 1921. However, by 1936, the property had been
foreclosed on, and the diocese was able to purchase the property from the holder of the
mortgage, an insurance company. The total cost to the diocese was $35,000 (). The new
parish was officially established on June 15, 1936. Known as Christ the King Church, it was the fifth parish in the Atlanta area, following the parishes of
Immaculate Conception,
Sacred Heart, St. Anthony's, and
Our Lady of Lourdes. The mansion was converted for use as a
rectory, while a temporary
altar was constructed on the front porch. The first
mass was held two months after the parish's establishment, on August 15, on the
Feast of the Assumption. The church's first
pastor, Joseph Moylan, presided. While this initial mass utilized the front porch altar, a
chapel was soon constructed in the first floor of the rectory that could hold up to 220 people. In the beginning, the parish had a membership of about 400 adults and 109 children. Many of the early members of the church, such as businessman
J. J. Haverty and his family, had previously been members of Sacred Heart, located in
downtown Atlanta. Later in the year, committees made up of parishioners were established to oversee the creation of a new church building and the establishment of a
parochial school. The total cost of these two projects was projected to be $300,000 ($ million in ), which was paid for primarily through fundraising, which included a $50,000 ($ million in ) donation from Haverty. As part of his focus on Atlanta, O'Hara petitioned the
Holy See to change the Diocese of Savannah to the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta, with a
co-cathedral to be located in Atlanta. While an earlier effort led by Bishop
Thomas Albert Andrew Becker to move the cathedral city entirely to Atlanta had failed, this co-cathedral proposition was accepted. In 1937, the Holy See approved O'Hara's request, and Christ the King was chosen to serve as the co-cathedral, on equal ranking with the existing
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah. As part of the agreement, the bishop would reside at various times throughout the year in both cities, and
Holy Week ceremonies conducted by him would alternate every year between the two co-cathedrals.
Construction of the co-cathedral Having secured a majority of the money needed for the projects, the church selected the
architectural firm of Henry D. Dagit and Sons to design the new building, with Henry D. Dagit Jr. serving as the project's main
architect. The firm was based in
Philadelphia, where Bishop O'Hara had stationed prior to his relocation to Savannah, and had designed over 100 churches in the area, including the
St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church. Moylan made several suggestions to the architects regarding the design of the building, and based on this, the firm decided that the church would be similar to the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at
Rosemont College, which the firm had constructed several years prior. For the Atlanta project, they used many of the same materials and hired the same craftspeople who had worked on the chapel. The
construction of the building was undertaken by Griffin Construction Company, one of the oldest construction firms in the state, whose work in the city had also included
The Temple. The building's
stained glass was made by Henry Lee Willet of
Willet Studios, which was also based in Philadelphia. However, due to funding and issues arising from
World War II, the last stained-glass window would not be installed until 1952. On October 31, 1937, during the
Feast of Christ the King, the
cornerstone for the co-cathedral was laid in a ceremony that included a blessing from O'Hara. The following month, on November 4, O'Hara presided over the first mass to be conducted on the construction site, attracting about 400 people.
Dedication Construction continued through 1938, finishing in December of that year. While the
dedication was planned for the following month, a funeral held on December 12 for one of the founding members of the church was actually the first
rite conducted within the newly built structure. A
dispensation had been granted to allow for this. The dedication occurred on January 18, 1939, during the
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. As part of the ceremonies, 21 archbishops and 110 bishops from across the United States were invited, while the dedication itself was to be overseen by O'Hara and
Dennis Joseph Dougherty, a
cardinal and
archbishop of Philadelphia. Upon Dougherty's arrival by train the day prior, he had been greeted at
Terminal Station by a crowd of roughly 3,000 spectators, including
Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield and members of the
cadet corps from
Marist College High School. Additional notable guests at the dedication included
Georgia Governor Eurith D. Rivers and
Hiram Wesley Evans, the latter being the
imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. In addition to the altars at the church, additional temporary altars were dedicated at the
Hotel Ansley and the
Atlanta Biltmore in order to allow traveling Catholic dignitaries to hold daily mass. On the year of its dedication,
Architectural Record called it the most beautiful building in Atlanta.
Later history Following
World War II, Buckhead and the surrounding area experienced a growth in population (with annexation of the district into the city of Atlanta in 1952), prompting the Holy See to split the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta into two separate dioceses in 1956. Within the newly created
Diocese of Atlanta, Christ the King became the sole cathedral. During the early 1960s, the cathedral assisted with the development of Our Lady of Lourdes, a parish within its jurisdiction, with a substantial financial donation towards the creation of a new permanent building for the church. In 1962, the Diocese of Atlanta was elevated to the status of
archdiocese, and since then, Christ the King has served as the site of installation for all subsequent archbishops. The following year, William Calhoun was ordained at the church as the archdiocese's first
African American priest. In November 1967, as part of the
Catholic–Lutheran dialogue stemming from the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council, a joint Catholic–
Lutheran service was conducted at the cathedral. In 1994, the practice of
perpetual adoration began at the cathedral. By the mid-2000s, the cathedral had a reported membership of roughly 5,300 families. In a 2012 publication, the church stated that they had a membership of about 5,200 families, while the archdiocese boasted roughly 1 million members. Around 2016, Daprato Rigali Studios conducted a restoration process on the cathedral's stained-glass windows. In September 2018, parishioners from around the archdiocese protested concerning the Catholic Church sex abuse cases in the United States. == Architecture and design ==