Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, April 13, 2000
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Phoenix Rising: Sacred Heart School, Savannah
E arly in 1922, the contract to
build Sacred Heart School
was awarded to R.J. Whalley
and a projected cost of
$56,000 was settled on. The
building was to be two sto
ries and made of brick with
a stone finish. Plans called
for ten large classrooms, along
with library and faculty j_j
rooms.
Two entrances were to give access
and egress to the school: one on
Abercom Street and the other on
Thirty-eighth. Groundbreaking took
place in mid-February, 1922, with
Bishop Haid, OSB, of Belmont
Abbey, Bishop Benjamin J. Keiley of
Savannah, and Father Bernard Haas,
pastor of Sacred Heart Church, on
hand.
This “new” building was the sec
ond Sacred Heart School on the site.
In 1916, six Sisters of Saint Joseph of
Carondolet had come to staff the first
Sacred Heart School, which opened
that fall in a frame building on
Thirty-eighth Street between Drayton
and Abercom. The school began with
five grades but would increase each
year by one grade until there was a
total of eight. Their teaching role at
Sacred Heart was not the Sisters of
Saint Joseph’s first experience of the
Savannah Diocese. They had been
introduced to it much earlier, first
arriving in Savannah in 1867 to teach
Negro boys in a school located on
Perry and Floyd Streets. Later, the
Sisters were given charge of the
Barry Male Orphanage, but left the
diocese when the orphanage was
moved to Washington, Georgia.
Sacred Heart School functioned as
an outstanding Catholic educational
facility for many years. World Wars I
and II and the Korean War saw many
former students of the school embark
on military service. The post-war
periods also brought changes.
After Benedictine Military
School moved to its mod
em-day setting on
Seawright Drive in 1963,
Sacred Heart moved into the
former “B.C.” on Bull Street.
In the mid-1960s, two impor-
DeLorme tant things ha PP ened - First ’
the Sacred Heart School
building on Thirty-eighth Street was
demolished and then, in 1966, Sacred
Heart School observed its fiftieth
anniversary. Many graduates and for
mer teachers at the school were pre
sent at this time to study and exclaim
over photos of classes taken over the
years. Father Terence Keman, OSB,
pastor of Sacred Heart, announced that
a special Mass would be offered on
December 10 for deceased students of
the school. Mayor J. Curtis Lewis, of
Savannah, designated Sunday,
December 11, 1966, as “Sacred Heart
School Day”. Six Sacred Heart gradu
ates who had joined the teaching order
of Saint Joseph gathered for the event.
They were Sisters Mary Pauline
Oetgen, Mary Edward Lang, Mary
Helen Best, Mary Gerald Wells, Mary
Raymond McMahon and Mary
Terence Colini. Though unable to
attend the observance, Sister Anna
Bridget, a well-known former faculty
member, sent a box of orchids from
her post in Hawaii to honor the occa
sion. One of the plants, a white orchid,
was to be worn by Sister Mary Ursula,
a member of the original band of six
pioneering sisters who had taught at
the first Sacred Heart School.
As times and neighborhood demo
graphics changed, the school on Bull
Street changed with them. Parochial
care of Sacred Heart Church reverted
to the diocese. In the fall of 1969,
Sacred Heart Interparochial School
"Old" Sacred
opened its doors to a student body
which was 59% white and 41%
black, a ratio which would remain
fairly constant throughout the years
of the school’s existence. The school
drew its students from Sacred Heart,
Saint Benedict’s and Saint Frances
Cabrini parishes.
Franciscan Sisters who had previ
ously taught at Saint Benedict’s
School replaced the Sisters of Saint
Joseph. Sister Mary Camille, OSF,
first principal of the new inter
parochial school, noted that mmors
about the school and misinformation
about it had been problems early on.
The school overcame such problems
and operated as a respected institu
tion of learning until the old
Benedictine School building suddenly
began “feeling its age”.
During the Christmas break of
1989, plans had to be made to trans
fer Sacred Heart pupils to Saint
John’s Center at Isle of Hope. An
inspection conducted by the
Buildings Inspections Office of the
city of Savannah had resulted in the
“immediate withdrawal of the certifi-
Hearf School
cate of occupancy for the building”.
Father Thomas Peyton, pastor of
Sacred Heart Church, and Sister Elise
Gorman, principal of the school,
would have to welcome returning stu
dents at a new location. Eventually, it
was decided that extensive repairs to
the old Benedictine building would
be too costly, and that Sacred Heart
and Cathedral Day Schools would be
combined into Notre Dame Academy
on Lafayette Square.
The saga of Sacred Heart School
did not end here. Earlier this year, the
Diocese of Savannah announced that
the former BC/Sacred Heart School
building would be restored and that
Notre Dame Academy would move
into it. Bishop J. Kevin Boland dis
closed that a foundation had been set
up for its restoration, and that the his
toric institution would soon start to
take on a new life, yet another meta
morphosis in Sacred Heart’s long and
commendable history.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer
in the Diocesan Archives.
“Get in Step” march concludes with presentation of
By Jordan MacMorrough
Columbia, SC
espite rain, rough roads, blisters, and groups of
protesters along the way, throngs of marchers
converged on the south side of the South Carolina
Statehouse for a rally April 6, marking the conclu
sion of a 120-mile march led by Charleston mayor
Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
Riley, who is also a parishioner at the Cathedral
of Saint John the Baptist, garnered broad national
and regional attention for the five-day “Get in Step
with the People of South Carolina” trek. The effort
was a “grassroots initiative to let the South Caro
lina Legislature know that the citizens of South
Carolina want an immediate end to the Confederate
flag debate,” according to press information from
march organizers.
A statement from Charleston Bishop Robert J.
Baker said, “It is time to reconcile and to find a
solution that represents the sentiments of the parties
that disagree about the meaning of the flag over the
state Capitol. There are those who value the flag for
its historical and cultural heritage, and there are
those who feel the flag does not represent them.
Now is the time for a solution, not tomorrow—in
this session of the Legislature, and not the next.”
“Get in Step” officials noted the event drew thou
sands of participants along the way—some for a
few minutes and others for an entire day. Church
groups came by the busloads, as did school groups.
One morning found four of South Carolina’s top
university athletic coaches joining Riley at the front
of the line. University of South Carolina football
coach Lou Holtz and basketball coach Eddie Fog-
ler, along with Clemson football coach Tommy
Bowden and basketball coach Larry Shyatt, joined
the walkers in the Holly Hill area. Also, one after
noon the entire team of deans and students from the
Medical University of South Carolina turned up.
Among the 2,000 people walking the final leg of
the march were Bishop Baker; Monsignor Leigh
Lehocky, pastor of Saint Peter’s Church in
Columbia; and Monsignor Christopher Lathem,
pastor of Saint John the Beloved Church in
Summerville.
Other notables taking part in the home stretch
included Darius Rucker and members of the rock
group Hootie and the Blowfish, author Pat Conroy,
SC state flag to Governor
artist Jonathan Greene, and former Governor David
Beasley, who initially proposed relocation of the
battle flag during his term in office.
Arriving on the Statehouse steps, Riley was
greeted by Governor Jim Hodges and Columbia
Mayor Bob Coble. Following remarks from Hodges
and an introduction by Coble, Riley talked of resi
dents he met along the march route who offered
walkers water, prayers, and applause.
In his speech, the Charleston mayor emphasized
that the vast majority of South Carolinians support
moving the Confederate flag from atop the South
Carolina state Capitol, yet the Legislature has failed
to act.
Riley also read for the first time a threatening let
ter he received prior to the event, which necessitat
ed the wearing of a bulletproof vest throughout the
march as well as a beefed-up security presence for
marchers.
“For the citizen who sent me a handwritten,
unsigned letter that said, ‘If you march those n
through Calhoun County’—n is a racial
(Continued on page 11)
Photo courtesy of Diocesan Archives