Sacred Heart Cultural Center

Mission

The mission of Sacred Heart Cultural Center is to preserve and maintain the Sacred Heart Building as a National Register Historic Site and to function as a center for cultural activities.

History

The year is 1874.  Father Theodore Butler purchased a home and a lot in Augusta, Georgia, belonging to Charles Rowland for $10,000.00 to construct a building to be used as a church for the Catholic population and a school for children of all denominations.  An unpretentious Victorian structure served as a temporary facility for the church until work could begin on a larger, more significant building for the group.

Architecture

The occasion is momentous . . . December 2, 1900.  Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built by Jesuit priests, opened its doors for worship.  Approaching and entering Sacred Heart transports one's senses to a European village of old where the cathedral was the repository for the greatest natural talents and artistic treasures of the town.  So it is with Sacred Heart.

The first bricks were laid for Sacred Heart Church in 1897.  The church was a magnificent house of worship for over seventy years.  Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it is an architectural masterpiece.  The building features towering twin spires, graceful arches, fifteen distinctive styles of brickwork, ninety-four stained glass windows, a barreled vaulted ceiling and intricately carved Italian marble altars.  Because of the steady move by Augustans to the suburbs, the last mass was held in Sacred Heart July 3, 1971.