Immaculate Conception Church (Sparks, Nevada)

The Immaculate Conception Church, located at 528 Pyramid Way in Sparks, Nevada, is a brick Roman Catholic church that was built in 1932 to replace an earlier church that was built in 1905 but destroyed by a fire in 1930. It was designed by prolific Nevada architect Frederic J. DeLongchamps (1882-1969) in Mediterranean Revival architecture.It was used as a Catholic church as late as 2004 when construction on a larger building was completed and the parish moved to that location. When the building was photographed in 2014, it was operating under the name "Iglesia Cristiana Monte Sinai".The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The building was deemed significant as the oldest surviving Catholic church in Sparks, as one of the first built in Nevada after the state became a diocese under 1931 decree of Pope Pius XI, and architecturally as a relatively rare use of Mediterranean Revival style in Nevada and "one of the many outstanding works" of DeLongchamps.Its original form is "somewhat obscured" by a 1970 addition of a vestibule and porch on the front, added to provide handicapped access, but the addition was designed to be compatible architecturally.