Sacred Heart Church is an historic church building in Portland, Maine, owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

History

Built between 1896 and 1915, it was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architects

Francis H. Fassett Francis Henry Fassett (June 25, 1823 – November 1, 1908) was an American architect in Maine who built as many as 400 homes and buildings throughout the state. Working in the Victorian High Gothic and Queen Anne styles, he especially influ ...

and Edward F. Fassett. It is modeled after the Marseille's

Notre-Dame de la Garde Notre-Dame de la Garde (literally: Our Lady of the Guard), known to local citizens as ''la Bonne Mère'' (French for 'the Good Mother'), is a Catholic basilica in Marseille, France, and the city's best-known symbol. The site of a popular Assump ...

basilica and was Francis Fassett's final commission before his 1906 death. Upon completion it became the city's third Catholic parish. Bishop

James Augustine Healy James Augustine Healy (April 6, 1830 – August 5, 1900) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first African American to serve as a Catholic priest or bishop. With his predominantly European ancestry, Healy passed for a ...

appointed Irish-born Father John O'Dowd as its first pastor. The building's first mass was held on April 4, 1897. In 1997, the Diocese closed nearby St. Dominic's Church and merged the parish into Sacred Heart to form the Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish. Located in Portland's densely built and primarily working-class residential Parkside neighborhood, the church was founded to serve the city's large Irish-American population; however, by the 2000s, the parish had grown to include a significant population of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa and Central America.

Renovations

In 1999, $793,000 was raised to repair the roof and stone exterior; this work was completed in 2001. Further renovations were completed in early 2005. In 2013, a $200,000 capital campaign began to raise funds to restore the church's bell tower, repair its bell, and repaint the window sashes. However, when renovations began, engineers discovered that more money was needed to repair the roof over the altar. In 2015, local historic preservation organization Greater Portland Landmarks placed Sacred Heart on its "Places in Peril" due to years of deferred maintenance and repairs and urged its supporters to help fund renovations.

References

{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland Irish-American culture in Portland, Maine Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland Roman Catholic churches completed in 1915 1896 establishments in Maine Churches in Portland, Maine 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Francis H. Fassett buildings