

Above: The tower of the second Sacred
Heart Church succumbs to a dynamite blast, March, 1929.
Courtesy of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Seattle.
Below: The parish bell, is preserved
on the grounds of the current Sacred Heart Church,
adjacent to the Seattle Center.
On the grounds of Sacred Heart Church in Seattle is a bell, no longer
in use. This historic bell once hung in the tower of the second Sacred
Heart Church. The bell was recast from the bells of the first Sacred
Heart Church, dramatically destroyed by fire in 1899 (see
#25 in this series).
The parish community wasted not a moment. Just three days after the
fire, they met to talk about the building of a new church. Within weeks
the ruins of the old building had been cleared away to make way for the
new. The cornerstone was laid on August 11, 1899, and a year later the
new Sacred Heart Church was dedicated.
A Detroit architect, Harry Rill, had been selected, and his “blending of
both Roman and Gothic styles,” reported the Catholic Sentinel, “will
make a very pretty effect.” The generosity of the parish and the broader
community to the building of the new church was extraordinary. When
Father Brown solicited donors for new stained glass, all except one
window was paid for by the end of the first day. An unusual element of
the new church was the double choir galleries—there was one above the
main entrance for the adult choir, and another above the transept for
the school choir. The latter were so expertly trained by the Sisters of
the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary that they sang at the dedication Mass,
with a 13-year old, Eleanor Nordhoff, at the organ!
The new church far surpassed the old in beauty, but it was not
without its detractors. The Archives of the Archdiocese of Seattle
preserves two letters of complaint about the bell, which was rung by the
altar servers (one of whom was Russell Ryan, father of our own Father
Ryan) before each Mass. “Does it ever occur to you that your church bell
is a nuisance to the neighborhood?” wrote an anonymous Belltown resident
in 1905. “Any person who would be led to prayer, or in whose mind a
beautiful thought could be aroused by the funereal tones of your bell,
would be a saint indeed…. Why even the dogs of the neighborhood howl...
all the time it is ringing.” Another letter arrived a few months later:
“This morning your bell ringer forgot to ring his bell at half past 7
o’clock, for which the entire neighborhood was duly thankful…. really
dear sir, why can it not be forgotten every morning? The bell is dismal
sounding and unmusical and altogether an infernal nuisance.”
The second Sacred Heart Church was also destined to be short-lived. In
1910, what is known as Denny Regrade Number 1 leveled the western part
of the hill on the waterfront side. As early as 1917, plans were
underway for Denny Regrade Number 2, which would raze the eastern part
of the hill—including the site of Sacred Heart Church.
In 1928, the property was sold. The parishioners were far from
pleased. A poem addressed to the Sacred Heart church appeared in the
Progress: “The hill whereon you, martyred, stand / Is soon to melt away
/ Before the onward march of trade / God of this newer day.” In
September of that year, the Redemptorist priests moved to a new
residence on Warren Avenue, and on October 12 the last Mass was offered
in Sacred Heart Church. “The bell at Sacred Heart has sounded the
Angelus for the last time,” wrote a parishioner in the Progress. “Denny
Hill is coming down, and old Sacred Heart Church will fall before the
wreckers…. We have lost our faithful friend. The Bell of Sacred Heart
has sounded its own requiem.”
The church itself was demolished in March of 1929. The walls came
down easily, but the cross-topped bell tower (minus the bell, which was
preserved) was another story. It refused to give way to the wreckers,
and stood alone on what remained of Denny Hill for several days. The
Sisters of Mercy asked the wreckers to remove the cross before
collapsing the tower, but since the stairs to the tower had already been
removed, their pious request was denied.
The builders had done their work so well that it took “four terrific
dynamite blasts” to bring the tower down. One of these blasts was so
powerful that it sent fragments of brick all the way to Fourth Avenue,
but when the dust cleared, the tower was still standing, “badly battered
but seemingly proud of its tenacity to life and tradition.” But at last
it fell. The headline in the P-I read “Spire, Defiant, Is Humbled.” An
extraordinary series of photos captured the tower’s collapse, and was
reprinted in newspapers as far away as Montreal. It was time for Sacred
Heart to rebuild yet again, but the Great Depression and a war would
intervene before the next Sacred Heart Church would rise.
—Corinna Laughlin, Pastoral Assistant for Liturgy
Want to learn more? Read Journey of Faith,
the illustrated history of the Archdiocese of Seattle, available in the
Cathedral Bookstore.
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