September 16, 2024

Diocese sells Sacred Heart church and former rectory in Holyoke

REGIONAL
Staff report

HOLYOKE – Sacred Heart Church in Holyoke and its former rectory have been sold, according to diocesan officials. The oldest Catholic church structure in the city of Holyoke, it has been closed since March 2017 when ceiling plaster began falling, rendering the worship site unsafe. Analysis of the church’s condition led to cost estimates that exceeded the parish’s financial ability.

The property was sold for $200,000 to Wollaston Real Estate Investments, LLC, a company with a history of renovating older properties, according to its website.

The sale did not include the parish center, which in addition to holding parish functions, also hosts Homework House, an independent after school tutoring program. 

An offshoot of St. Jerome’s Parish, Sacred Heart Parish was established in 1876 as a mission church to accommodate the growing Irish population in the Churchill neighborhood in Holyoke.

According to Historical Tours of Greater Holyoke, which documents the history of the city, Masses were initially held in the basement of the church from Christmas of 1876 until June of 1883, “when the nave was completed and the dedication happened.”

Although not the oldest Catholic parish in Holyoke, Sacred Heart was the oldest Catholic church structure.  That was because a fire severely damaged St. Jerome Church, the Mother Church of Holyoke in 1934 and construction on a new structure was undertaken in 1935.

Sacred Heart remained as a parish until 2000, when months after a devastating fire destroyed nearby Perpetual Help Church, it was re-established as Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. With the closing of the church in 2017, worship was moved into the parish center and an adjacent chapel.

In 2020, a collaborative was created to share and coordinate resources for St. Jerome, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Immaculate Conception parishes. That led to the merger of the three parishes in 2022.