Page B 4 in todays paper! SACRED HEART CHURCH Monument to French-speakers church to be dedicated Sacred Heart Church, formerly located at Summer and Robeson streets in New Bedford, was the Mother Church for the city’s French speakers. When formed in 1874, it served 140 families, according to a press release. As French-Canadians streamed into the city to work in the cotton mills, the parish grew. It opened a bilingual French-English school in 1886. By 1908, the parish had grown to 1,000 families. Later, daughter churches were launched in the North End and the South End. In 1999, after 125 years of service to the city’s French speakers, the church closed. Parishioners from the remaining 350 families found new churches. When the building was demolished in January 2001, its furnishings were dispersed to several churches nationwide. On Nov. 30, former parishioners will dedicate a monument to memorialize Sacred Heart Church. The monument holds two significant relics. Students at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School built an enclosure and steel frame to hold the school bell, once mounted inside its steeple atop the mansard slate roof. Skilled masons from the city of New Bedford constructed the footing and the red brick base which incorporates the original cornerstone from the church. Former parishioners and others are invited to the dedication at noon Nov. 30 at the corner of Robeson and Summer streets.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 19:06:19 +0000
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