St. Francis of Assisi Church La Quinta: History Guide

Last Updated: 5.13.26 | Time To Read: 7-8 minutes | Author: Mark Miller | Category: Days To Remember

At first glance, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in La Quinta looks like it has always belonged here.

The pale walls, red tile roof, arched entry, rose window, and mountain backdrop make the church feel almost inevitable — as if it rose naturally from the edge of the Santa Rosa Mountains. But the story behind this building is far more interesting than most people realize.

Before St. Francis became one of the most recognizable religious landmarks in La Quinta, the parish spent years without a permanent church building. Before the sanctuary stood at Washington Street, Mass was celebrated in borrowed spaces. Before the murals, crucifix, chapel, parish hall, and future expansion plans, there was a small Catholic community trying to build a spiritual home in a desert city that was still taking shape.

The Diocese of San Bernardino records that St. Francis of Assisi was established in 1974, originally within the Diocese of San Diego. The founding pastor was Fr. Raymond Bluett, and for roughly the first decade the parish had no dedicated church building. Mass was held in places as practical and unexpected as a local bank and an auto dealership.

That beginning matters because it explains the character of the church today. St. Francis was not dropped into La Quinta as a finished monument. It grew with the community.

It began with people gathering wherever they could. Then it became a building. Then it became a landmark. Now, more than 50 years after its founding, it is still expanding.

The early years of St. Francis were humble, creative, and very local.

According to parish history, before the church was completed, parishioners used nicknames for the unusual places where Mass was held. When Mass was celebrated at Crocker Bank, the parish jokingly referred to it as “St. Crocker.” When Mass was held at Simon Motors, it became “Our Lady of the Cars.”

Those nicknames are charming, but they also tell a deeper story. In the 1970s and early 1980s, La Quinta was not the fully built-out resort and residential city people know today. The parish’s own historical notes describe the land around the church site during construction in 1983 as largely open desert, with little across Washington Street except scrub brush.

The original church land was part of the historic Clarke Ranch at Point Happy, once owned by Chauncey and Marie Clarke. The ranch was known for Arabian horses, Deglet Noor dates, citrus trees, fruit trees, and gardens — a reminder that before La Quinta became associated with country clubs, gated communities, and resort living, this part of the valley was shaped by ranching, agriculture, water, and open desert land.

In that setting, the Catholic parish began to imagine a permanent home.

The present church building was dedicated on November 25, 1984, by Bishop Philip Straling. The Diocese of San Bernardino describes the church as patterned after the Church of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, with the concept and design envisioned by Franco Zeffirelli and Fr. Raymond Bluett.

That connection is one of the most unusual parts of the church’s story.

Most churches have architects. St. Francis of Assisi in La Quinta has something more layered: a design story connected to one of the most famous Italian film directors of the 20th century.

Parish history says the founding pastor, Fr. Raymond Bluett, and Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli originally imagined a church inspired by the 13th-century church associated with St. Francis in Assisi. Reproducing that medieval model directly proved impractical, so the design direction evolved into a basilica-style church with a vaulted-ceiling concept and Romanesque influence.

That detail changes how the building should be understood.

This is not simply a “Mission-style” desert church. It is better described as an Italian Romanesque-inspired basilica adapted to the Southern California desert. The building borrows from the visual language of old-world Catholic architecture — arches, proportion, symmetry, sacred procession, and a long nave — while using a palette that feels natural in La Quinta: pale exterior walls, red tile roofing, desert light, and a mountain setting.

The result is a church that feels both imported and local.

It gestures toward Assisi, but it lives in La Quinta.

The story of St. Francis also intersects with the desert’s long relationship with Hollywood.

For decades, the Coachella Valley was a retreat for actors, directors, producers, musicians, and public figures. Palm Springs is usually the city most associated with that history, but La Quinta has its own chapter — especially through La Quinta Resort, which attracted celebrities looking for privacy, sun, and quiet.

The parish’s own history notes that the first Mass in the new St. Francis church was celebrated on Holy Thursday, April 19, 1984, and that the first two readers were Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck. It also credits generosity from figures including Frank Sinatra, Frank Capra, Bob Hope, and the Annenbergs as part of what helped make the church possible.

That is not a small detail.

It places St. Francis inside a specific era of La Quinta’s growth — a moment when the desert was becoming more than a winter escape. It was becoming a place where culture, real estate, faith, architecture, and celebrity life overlapped.

The church was not built in isolation. It was built during a period when La Quinta was transforming from a quiet desert community into a more visible destination. St. Francis became part of that transformation.

It gave the growing community a spiritual center. It also gave La Quinta one of its most visually memorable landmarks.

The exterior of St. Francis is striking, but the interior is where the deeper artistic story unfolds.

The church is known for its murals painted by Alexander Rosenfeld, a La Quinta artist who used faded copies of Giotto’s frescoes from the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, as inspiration. Parish history says Rosenfeld was in his 90s when he worked on the murals, painting nine hours a day, six days a week, for two and a half years. He completed 16 murals, including 14 depicting the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

That is the kind of local art story that deserves more attention.

The murals are not decorative filler. They connect the La Quinta church back to Assisi, to the life of St. Francis, and to one of the most important visual traditions in Christian art. They also represent the work of a local artist pouring years of disciplined labor into a sacred space.

The altar crucifix has its own remarkable origin. Parish history says it was carved by sculptor Ivo Demetz in northern Italy from a single 700-pound block of pepperwood, except for Jesus’ extended left arm, and then shipped to the church by air.

A 1986 Los Angeles Times travel feature described St. Francis as an impressive new parish church and noted the sanctuary murals, Irish stained-glass windows, and an altar piece hand-carved in Italy. At the time, the article also described artist Alexander Rosenfeld still at work on the frescoes.

Together, those features make St. Francis more than a parish church. It is a house of worship, but it is also a local art site.

For visitors, photographers, architecture enthusiasts, and residents who want to understand La Quinta more deeply, the church offers a rare combination: sacred architecture, desert setting, imported craftsmanship, local artistry, and valley history.

When St. Francis opened in 1984, La Quinta itself was still young as an incorporated city. The Los Angeles Times noted in 1986 that La Quinta was celebrating only its fourth year as an incorporated city. The same article described the town’s resort identity, mountain setting, and the new St. Francis church as one of the notable attractions along Washington Street.

That timing matters.

St. Francis did not simply serve a finished city. It grew alongside a city that was still defining itself.

By 1998, just 14 years after the church opened, the parish had expanded to 2,200 families and almost 5,000 parishioners, prompting a major campus expansion that included enlarging the hall and building the pastoral center and chapel. By 2016, parish history listed 5,661 registered families and 16,327 registered parishioners.

That growth reflects what happened across La Quinta and the surrounding area.

More homes were built. More seasonal residents came. More families settled. More retirees chose the desert. Indian Wells and La Quinta became major parts of the parish boundaries. What began as a congregation without a permanent building became one of the major Catholic communities in the eastern Coachella Valley.

The church’s growth is also a mirror of La Quinta’s growth.

Today, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church remains an active parish, not just a historic building.

Its current public schedule includes weekend Masses in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and a periodic Tagalog Mass. The church also lists weekday Mass, Confession times, first-Friday Eucharistic Adoration, livestreamed Masses, online giving, parish registration, bulletins, and digital prayer tools.

That multilingual schedule says a lot about the Coachella Valley.

The valley is not one single culture. It is seasonal and year-round, English- and Spanish-speaking, immigrant and multigenerational, retired and young, resort-oriented and working-class, deeply local and constantly changing. St. Francis sits at the intersection of all of that.

The parish also supports a wide range of liturgical ministries, including altar servers, art and environment, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, readers, mass coordinators, music ministry, sacristans, and ushers/hospitality.

Current clergy and staff listings identify Father James McLaughlin as pastor and Father Dominic Vu as parochial vicar, alongside parish staff serving pastoral care, business and finance, communications and technology, religious education, reception, bookkeeping, and other operational roles.

This is the difference between a building and a living institution.

A building can be photographed. A parish has rhythms: Masses, baptisms, marriages, funerals, formation, music, confession, service, administration, and daily pastoral work.

St. Francis has both.

The future of St. Francis is tied to one practical reality: the parish has outgrown its existing space.

The City of La Quinta currently lists the St. Francis Parish Hall Expansion at 47225 Washington Street as under construction. The project description includes a 22,499-square-foot parish hall and a 4,835-square-foot administrative building, totaling a 27,334-square-foot expansion. The project was approved by the Planning Commission in 2022, with a time extension approved in 2024.

The parish’s own FAQ explains the need in plain terms. It says the church has had to decline or limit ministry meetings and events because of space constraints, including diocesan formation events, Diaconate dinners, Knights of Columbus gatherings, AA, Scouts, and other parish functions. The new space is intended to support ministries, parish operations, youth use, Sunday gatherings, family nights, and outreach programs such as food distribution in partnership with organizations like FIND.

The new hall is planned to include ten classrooms, a large event room, a commercial kitchen, a choral room, and space for overflow Masses and parish events. The parish states the event room will accommodate 468 people at tables.

Parking is also part of the project. The parish says the total number of parking spaces will increase from 398 to 512, with accessible parking increasing from 17 to 23 stalls, plus 9 EV charging stations.

Financially, the parish FAQ lists the total project cost at $18.4 million, divided between the parish hall phase, operating and fundraising expenses, and a future administrative building phase. It reports $11.5 million in pledges, with $11.0 million paid, and notes that building funds are held in a restricted diocesan account.

The public timeline lists the parish hall completion target as November 2026, with administrative offices still dependent on available funding. The FAQ names Near Cal Construction as contractor and Miller & Associates as architects.

In October 2024, the parish celebrated its 50th anniversary on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi with a Solemn Mass followed by a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited expansion project.

That moment gave the church’s story a clean symbolic arc: honoring the past while building for the future.

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church matters because it tells several La Quinta stories at once.

It tells the story of faith — a Catholic parish that began without a permanent building and grew into a major spiritual community.

It tells the story of architecture — an Assisi-inspired, Romanesque-influenced church adapted to the desert landscape.

It tells the story of art — murals inspired by Giotto, painted by a local artist, and a crucifix carved in northern Italy from a massive block of pepperwood.

It tells the story of Hollywood’s desert connection — with names like Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Frank Capra, Bob Hope, Franco Zeffirelli, and the Annenbergs woven into the parish’s early memory.

It tells the story of La Quinta’s growth — from open desert and ranch land to one of the Coachella Valley’s most desirable residential and resort communities.

And now, through its expansion, it tells the story of the future: a parish still trying to make room for the people it serves.

That is what makes St. Francis more than a church on Washington Street.

It is a landmark of belonging.

A place where La Quinta’s past, present, and future meet beneath the mountains.

• Name: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
• Location: 47225 Washington Street, La Quinta, CA
• Established: 1974
• Founding Pastor: Fr. Raymond Bluett
• First Mass in Present Church: Holy Thursday, April 19, 1984
• Church Dedication: November 25, 1984
• Design Influence: St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy; Romanesque-inspired basilica design
• Notable Art: Alexander Rosenfeld murals inspired by Giotto; Ivo Demetz altar crucifix carved in northern Italy
• Current Expansion: 27,334-square-foot parish hall and administrative building project
• Expansion Status: Under construction, according to the City of La Quinta
• Parish Hall Target Completion: November 2026, according to parish FAQ

Sources

• Diocese of San Bernardino parish history
• St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church parish history and trivia
• St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church expansion FAQ
• City of La Quinta planning record for St. Francis Parish Hall Expansion
• Los Angeles Times, 1986 La Quinta travel feature
• Inland Catholic Byte report on the 50th anniversary and groundbreaking