Sacred Heart | |
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Coordinates: 35°0′4″N96°48′33″W / 35.00111°N 96.80917°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Oklahoma |
County | Pottawatomie |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
Sacred Heart Mission Site | |
Nearest city | Asher, Oklahoma |
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Area | 640 acres (260 ha) |
Built | 1914 |
NRHP reference No. | 83002125 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 15, 1983 |
Sacred Heart is a small unincorporated community in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. Established in 1879 by Father Isidore Robot as a Catholic mission on the old Pottawatomie reserve, it was originally named Sacred Heart Mission. The name was changed to Sacred Heart in 1888, shortly before the area was opened to settlement by non-Indians.
The community of Sacred Heart revolved around the Sacred Heart Mission. During the early 20th century, many of its functions moved to other locations. High school and college education for boys moved in 1915 to Shawnee, to the facility that eventually became St. Gregory's University. The post office was closed in 1954. The mission site is located nine miles east of US 177 (Asher) on SH 39, then one mile north on Sacred Heart Road. [2] The community is now considered a ghost town.
In October 1876, Father Isidore Robot completed a deal with the Potawotami Indians for a tribal grant of land which included the current site of Sacred Heart Mission. Pioneering the mission was difficult. On Sunday, May 13, 1877, the first Mass at Sacred Heart was celebrated. Sacred Heart was not permanently occupied until June 7, 1877, which is regarded as the true founding date of the parish. [2]
The Saint Mary's Academy was established in 1880 for the education of girls, along with a boarding school for boys, the Sacred Heart Institute. By 1884, there was a convent, a school for the girls, stables, employees' houses, blacksmith shop, tool house, carpenter shop, and a bakery-where the Sisters baked 500 French loaves each day. A model farm - with a great variety of orchards, gardens, vineyards, fields, herds of animals and every form of agriculture was developed. The farm had two main purposes: to supply food for the institution and to provide a model for the Indian boys to copy. The mission had its own publication, the Indian Advocate, which was published from 1888 to 1910 in the bakery building. In 1884 the Sacred Heart College was established, offering secondary and tertiary education for boys, followed by boys' elementary education in 1926. [2]
On the night of January 15, 1901, a fire broke out in the dining room of the Indian Boys School and swept out of control. Before it was over the blaze had destroyed the monastery, boys' school, college, girls' school, convent, and the church. Historical news accounts report that no one was killed, [3] but the entire mission was destroyed with the exception of a few small buildings. The bakery and the two-story log cabin are the only buildings that remain today. Temporary wooden buildings were set up to carry on the boys' school, while the Sisters of Mercy moved one-quarter of a mile southeast to create a new St. Mary's Academy. Mass was celebrated in a converted granary. The present church was begun in 1905, but was not completed until 1914. [2]
By 1910, the Benedictines went on from Sacred Heart to build St. Gregory's College, what later became St. Gregory's University, in Shawnee. A large Tudor-Gothic structure, Benedictine Hall, was under construction there by 1913, opening its doors for high school and college students for its first term in 1915. An elementary school for boys continued at Sacred Heart until 1926. Sacred Heart remained as their motherhouse for many years, until its transfer to Mt. Saint Mary's in Oklahoma City. The transfer of the educational and monastic endeavors to St. Gregory's College was complete by the early 1930s. The Sisters of Mercy founded numerous educational and medical facilities across the state, including St. Mary's Academy (now Mount St. Mary High School) and Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City. [2]
Sacred Heart reverted to use as a priory after all other functions had moved to St. Gregory's. The priory closed permanently in 1965. The church remains, but most other buildings have been demolished. [4]
The townsite contains a number of extant buildings and ruins.
The most significant building on the site is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, completed in 1914. It is located at the top of Bald Hill, represented as the highest point in Pottawatomie County. The church is an example of a restrained style of Gothic Revival, with a red tile roof and a stumpy front tower. Nearby are two cemeteries, one for the sisters and one for the abbey. Other buildings include one and two-story log houses dating to the late 1800s and a two-story sandstone bakery. The foundations of the school buildings and other structures are visible as well. A priest's home, parish hall and maintenance building are non-contributing structures. [2]
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 1983. [1]
Pottawatomie County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,454. Its county seat is Shawnee.
The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute has about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They also started many education and health care facilities around the world.
Asher is a town in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. The population was 393 at the 2010 census, a decline of 6.2 percent from the figure of 419 in 2000.
Pink is a town in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. The only town in the United States bearing this name, Pink lies within the boundaries of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The 2010 census population was 2,058, a 76.7 percent increase from the figure of 1,165 in 2000.
Shawnee is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 31,361 in 2020, a 5.04 percent increase from the figure of 29,857 in 2010. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area and the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical Area.
New Norcia is a town in Western Australia, 132 km (82 mi) north of Perth, near the Great Northern Highway. It is situated next to the banks of the Moore River, in the Shire of Victoria Plains. New Norcia is the only monastic town in Australia, with its Benedictine abbey founded in 1848. The monks later founded a mission and schools for Aboriginal children. A series of Catholic colleges were created, with the school that became St Benedict's College in 1965 later gaining notoriety for being the site of sexual abuse that took place in the late 1960s and 1970s.
St. Gregory's University was a private Catholic university. It was one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It had its main campus in Shawnee and an additional campus in Tulsa. The university closed its operations at the end of the fall 2017 semester.
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church of western Oklahoma in the United States. The mother church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City.
Avoca was a small town in Avoca Township, located in southeastern Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma Territory. The post office was established in 1894 and closed permanently in 1906.
Mount St. Mary High School is a private, Roman Catholic co-educational high school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It was established in 1903 by the Sisters of Mercy and located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
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Marian College, Christchurch was founded in 1982 with the merging of two Catholic secondary schools for girls, St Mary's College and McKillop College located in Shirley. Both schools provided boarding and day facilities. The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch is the proprietor of the college.
St. Gregory's Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery of the American-Cassinese Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. The monastery, founded by monks of the French monastery of Sainte-Marie de la Pierre-qui-Vire in 1876, was originally located in present-day Konawa, Oklahoma and called Sacred Heart Abbey. At present the community numbers around twenty-one monks who celebrate the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours. They used to staff various parishes but no longer do so, and their school, St. Gregory's University, was closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
Isidore Robot was a French-born missionary of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Apostolic Prefect of the Indian Territory, Oklahoma from 1876 to 1887.
Sacred Heart Cathedral School is a New Zealand, Catholic, primary school located in the central-city suburb of Thorndon, Wellington, New Zealand. It is part of a Catholic precinct dating from 1850. It joins St Mary's College, Wellington and Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington and is located opposite the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy in Wellington.
Benedictine Hall is located on the Green Campus of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. It was the central feature of the now-closed St. Gregory's University, housing its administration, library and most of its classes. Designed by St. Louis architect Victor Klutho, the facility opened in the fall of 1915.
St Patrick's Convent is a heritage-listed Roman Catholic convent at 45 The Strand, North Ward, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was built in c. 1883. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 February 2012.
St Catharine's Convent or St Catharine’s Mercy Centre is a Catholic convent of the Sisters of Mercy and a centre for the homeless in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built in 1860 and originally designed by David Cousin, with additions made in 1887 and 1892. It is located on the corner of Lauriston Gardens and Lauriston Place in the Lauriston area of Edinburgh. In 1992, it became a Mercy Centre with the mission of helping the local homeless. In 1989, it was designated a category B listed building.