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Sacred Heart catHedral
Before it became the diocesan cathedral, Sacred Heart was a church and a parish.
By early 1910, Bishop Thomas F. Hickey could see that recent immigration from Ireland, Italy and Germany would require the addition of a new parish in northwest Rochester. He recruited Father George V. Burns, then the pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Owego, to lead the new parish. Father Burns, later
named monsignor, led the parish until 1952.
The original church building, which later became Sacred Heart School, was opened in 1911 on the south side of Flower City Park. The second more expansive church was opened at 296 Flower City Park in 1927. During that same decade, the parish added a wing to the school (the former church) and built a new rectory and convent.
By 1931, Sacred Heart was one of the largest parishes in Rochester with nearly 1,200 families and 750 children in its school. That spectacular growth caught the eye of Bishop Thomas F. Hickey, who insisted that the new church include a bishop’s chapel in the west transept and a portable bishop’s throne. Sixteen angel statues, like those often found in Norman Gothic churches, sit atop ceiling trusses on either side of the building; altogether there are more than 100 angel gures in the building.
When the downtown St. Patrick’s Cathedral, choked by rings of commercial development, was suppressed and demolished, Sacred Heart
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