Unchanged Cornerstone (1887-2009) - Sacred Heart Church - Camden, NJ
N 39° 55.338 W 075° 07.215
18S E 489723 N 4419140
The Sacred Heart cornerstone was laid by Philip McDonald (fellow Master Mason) on July 4, 1886. Two thousand men from Philadelphia Ancient Order of Hibernians, of which Philip was a member, were present in full regalia. Photo was taken in 1887.
Waymark Code: WM807D
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 01/01/2010
Views: 6
This relatively ancient church marks this once thriving center of South Camden. Once an important Catholic parish, today, with a noticeable population shift, the church is not as viable as it once was. For some reason the church is unmarked, with no name written anywhere. The church is comprised of old brownstone and is situated at multi-intersectional piece of land, five streets converge onto one point. Sacred Heart sits in the middle of all manner of blight, crime, murder, death, prostitution, open-air drug markets and so much more. They acknowledge this on their website and yet they continue to fight on and remain here.
Sacred Heart Church and School sit in the midst of all this and there our mission is to proclaim hope. Trust in God. We stand there to proclaim against all odds that there is life before death and there is life after it. With God's help. Amen. SOURCE
A very neat looking cornerstone marks this 124-year old building. It is to the right of the main entrance, along the front left side, not too far from the ground. The stone is smooth and polished in stark contrast to the roughly hewn blocks of which the church is composed.
The following is derived in part from George Reeser Prowell's History of Camden County, New Jersey published in 1886 and primarily from Church of the Sacred Heart's A Heart in Camden for A Hundred Years published in 1985. It is a very small excerpt from an absolutely huge history:
In September 1885, Fr. Lynch was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart parish in South Camden, but it did not have a rectory at all until 1887. The young priest lived at 1911 Broadway, and said Mass in a little wooden church at Ninth and Van Hook Streets. On November 13, 1885 he bought a site for a church from John Bamford at Broadway & Ferry, a pivotal spot, it seemed at the time, where tram lines for his scattered parishioners converged from several directions. With his trustees, Hugh Greenan and Richard Boyle, and his small congregation he decided to build the church of Sacred Heart.
Jeremiah O'Rourke, an architect from Newark, drew the plans and the ground was broken on May 20, 1886. Philip McDonald, a native of Cavan, Ireland, with his six half brothers, the Beattys of Philadelphia and his cousin Alexander Monroe from Inverness in Scotland began to lay the Trenton brownstone at Broadway and Ferry. On July 4, 1886, Bishop Michael Joseph O'Farrell of Trenton laid the cornerstone in the presence of 7,000 people. Work moved rapidly. Mahlon Harden of Camden did the woodwork and nine months after the shovel was sunk in the sand to start it, the church opened for the first Mass on March 6, 1887.