Brick tile alone holds up the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary here in Wilmington, North Carolina, part of the Diocese of Raleigh. In 1974 it was included as a contributing property in the Wilmington Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, so you are literally standing in a listed piece of history. The main church is built in the Spanish Baroque style and was designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino, the same designer known for work on the Biltmore Estate, the Basilica of St. Lawrence, and Duke Chapel.
Notice the daring construction: the church was built without wooden or steel beams and without nails, relying instead on brick tile. This place is also a living parish campus. It hosts St. Mary Catholic School, serving children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school traces its origins to 1869, when the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy founded the Academy of the Incarnation at the request of Bishop James Gibbons. A separate school for poor girls, St. Peter's Parochial School for Girls, was also created; these schools were later closed. Picture the brick tile above you, laid without wooden beams, steel, or a single nail.