Sacred Heart Church

THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART

TRENTON, NJ

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ABOUT OUR CHURCH

New Jersey’s first Catholic Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist on June 12, 1814, it was built at Market and Lamberton Streets in Trenton. A small simple brick building 30 feet wide by 50 feet deep, St John’s drew a congregation of 30 families from both sides of the Delaware River, who continued to depend on traveling Philadelphia priests until 1837 when Rev. Daniel Magorien was appointed the first resident pastor.

Fourteen years later, Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine, had begun to swell the ranks of a congregation of German, French and Irish origin. The cornerstone for a new, much larger St. John’s Church was laid that year at Broad and Centre Streets. Completed and dedicated on August 27th 1848, the new church was classical in design, built of stucco brick with a three-story bell tower. The growth of the parish of St. John was so rapid that a new wing was added in 1856.

On Sunday night, September 30, 1883, fire destroyed St. John’s Church, leaving only the exterior walls, belfry with its bell and cupola standing. Undaunted, Pastor Rev. Thaddeus Hogan inspired his congregation of St. John’s Parish and plans were drawn up for a new church building slated to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

On August 3rd, 1884 Bishop Jeremiah Shanahan of Harrisburg laid the cornerstone for a new church. On June 12th, 1885 the surviving St. John’s bell, rang out again to signal the partial completion of the new church as Mass was celebrated for the first time in the basement chapel. The basement chapel was designed to seat 1,300, although the pews hadn’t arrived and parishioners stood.

Sacred Heart was dedicated on June 30th, 1889 by the Most Rev. Michael S. O’Farrell, first bishop of Trenton. On the north side of the church a rectory was built and on the south side a Catholic club house was built, both matching in design of the new Church of the Sacred Heart. The Catholic Club where gentlemen could be molded according to the highest standards was dear to the heart of Msgr. Hogan. He achieved his ambition so successfully that it was a cultural center for the men of Trenton for many years.

Romanesque Revival in style, Sacred Heart Church was designed by Patrick Charles Keely (1816-1896), himself an Irish immigrant. He was 19th century America’s most prominent and prolific Catholic architect - the designer of many cathedrals in Boston, Hartford, Buffalo, Albany and Chicago, as well as some 150 churches, including ones in New Brunswick, Jersey City, Mount Holly and Newark.

In 1918, Msgr. Hogan’s successor, Rev. Peter J. Hart built a modern school and convent adjacent to the rectory. On June 17, 1966 Msgr. Leonard R. Toomey was appointed the thirteenth pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart (formerly St. John). In 1972 the stores, houses and a tavern adjacent to the Catholic Club were purchased from the City of Trenton through an Urban Renewal Program and transformed into a landscaped parking yard for the parish, thus completing the current Parish Campus.

Still attracting parishioners from surrounding areas of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Church of the Sacred Heart still has as its mission to be a source of help and education, a place of worship, and the security of a solid Catholic Christian community for all who come. Having been listed on the National Historic Registry for the United States Department of Parks and Wildlife, the Church of the Sacred Heart comes into the new millennium anticipating the 200th celebration of the Parish in 2014.