May 6, 1888 drew 4,000 people to this spot for the cornerstone of St. John's Parish, the Roman Catholic church at 2500 California Plaza on Creighton's campus. It is part of the Archdiocese of Omaha and a ministry of the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. The cornerstone was laid on May 6, 1888, drawing 4,000 people—the largest crowd ever assembled in Nebraska up to that point.
Local architect P. J. Creedon designed this building in the English Gothic style you see around you. In 1897 the church was made a regular parish after the city's original bishop had intended it only as a temporary church for college-age attendees. Much of the original funding came from John A. Creighton, and Mary Creighton, Edward's wife, even donated jewelry to the construction fund before there was a building.
An addition was consecrated in 1923 by Bishop Patrick A. McGovern, himself a member of the first graduation class of Creighton College and the only bishop ever consecrated in St. John's. Renovations were completed in 2006, and in February 2015 an elevator was added to make the lower level accessible. Notice that Mary Creighton once donated jewelry to help fund this church before it even existed.