The Catholic community of Hempstead originally began at St. Mary’s Church in Waller. The parish relocated to Hempstead when that church was destroyed by fire. In 1892, the small frame church building that is now named Holy Angels Chapel was constructed.

This church was built to replace a previous church building that had been erected earlier in 1879 and was demolished by a tornado in 1890. Until 2005, this church stood a short distance from the original site of St. Mary’s at the corner of Wilkins and 14th streets and was used as the parish hall for Mary, Mother of God Church. In the spring of 2005, it was moved to the new location of St. Katharine Drexel Parish on FM 1488.

In 1935, a Josephite priest began ministry in Prairie View, which grew to become the Catholic parish of St. Martin de Porres.

In 2001, because of the shortage of clergy, both St. Martin de Porres and Mary, Mother of God were merged together to form St. Katharine Drexel Parish.

The name of this beautiful chapel is taken from our parish patroness, St. Katharine Drexel herself. One of the little expressions that she often said was, “Holy Angels”. She used it when she was excited, and when she was frustrated. It was mostly a kind of exclamation. Everything about this little chapel is an exclamation to the glory and wonder of God.

The chapel’s present renovation is truly a testament to the faith of the people of northern Waller County.

The stained glass windows represent both prior parishes. The six windows on the north and south sides come from Mary, Mother of God Church and the four windows on the east facade, as well as in the devotional alcove, came from St. Martin de Porres Church. All of the windows had to be modified to fit this chapel.

The floors of the chapel are original, and are long leaf yellow pine. The pews were originally in St. Dominic’s College Chapel in Houston. They were later used by Our Lady of Walsingham Parish for many years until they built their church around 2005. At that time, they were given to St. Katharine Drexel. All the re-finishing work was done by parishioners.

The hanging light fixtures came from Christ Our Light (formerly St. Patrick’s) in Navasota.

The Stations of the Cross are from Mary, Mother of God and the large crucifix in the front is from St. Martin de Porres. It is hoped that this crucifix will be used in the future church when it is built. The altar, ambo, tabernacle and statue stands were all built by a parishioner, Mr. Dennis Yelton. The tabernacle is from St. Martin de Porres. The statues in the devotional area, St. Therese, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Sacred Heart are from Mary, Mother of God. The statue of St. Joseph was originally from St. Martin de Porres.

In the building’s original design, the wall separating the chapel from the rear corridor did not exist, and a small baldachino was affixed against the back wall. When the church was remodeled into a parish hall, the sacristy became a small kitchen; the wall was added, along with the restroom and storage. When the building was moved to the present location, a confessional was installed.

There are two chairs that have been associated with this chapel since the 1930’s, one in the sacristy and one in the confessional. They have both been re-upholstered and the original hand-stitched upholstered seats now serve as framed art in the confessional.

The rug in the center isle has a particular story also. The first school that Mother Katharine founded was St. Michael School for Indians on the Navajo reservation, just outside of what is today known as Window Rock, Arizona. The Navajo people did not originally weave rugs. However, after the Euro-Anglos began to settle in the west where the Navajo lived, they taught them how to weave so that they could trade their rugs for money or other necessities they needed. The Navajo people used traditional designs from their pottery and transferred them into woven images. This rug, though not Navajo, uses some of their traditional designs.