Shrine of the Sacred Heart, located just off 16th Street NW at Park Road, is a monumental religious space with a century of significant social history.
The church was dedicated in December 1922 after nearly two years of construction. This was the second Sacred Heart Church, as the first was located nearby at approximately 14th Street and Park Road NW. The original Gothic Revival style church, completed in 1902, was meant to be a temporary location for the parish, as fundraising for a larger and grander church continued.
The 1922 church building features a Latin Cross plan, and was designed by Frederick V. Murphy of Murphy & Olmsted (with Maginnis & Walsh as associate architects) in a Northern Italian Romanesque Revival and Byzantine-Romanesque style. The Byzantine influence is most visible in the church's central dome and interior design.
The white limestone-clad church includes a prominent arcaded portico of granite columns on its primary facade (west elevation). Here, the main entrance faces a memorial park and 16th Street NW. Above this entrance is a rose window. Just south of the church is a three-story rectory, designed in a similar style to the church, which houses the pastor's residence, as well as office, meeting, and event spaces.
The church's interior sanctuary, which has been historically designated, features concrete mosaics and murals, which are the work of "architectural sculptor" John J. Earley — who lived nearby in Mount Pleasant. Following his work at Sacred Heart Church, Earley would design other church interiors. The church houses a large organ, built by Casavant Frères, which was said to be the city's largest prior to the installation of the Kennedy Center's organ.
In 1948, Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle became the first archbishop of the newly-established Archdiocese of Washington. Archbishop O’Boyle was committed to desegregation within the archdiocese’s parishes and parochial schools. However, the integration of churches like Sacred Heart was not immediate and many Black congregants continued to face discrimination and prejudice.
Simultaneously, during this postwar period, Washington’s Latino population began to increase, particularly in the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights neighborhoods. In turn, more Latinos began to attend services at Sacred Heart Church. Thus, Reverend Augustín R. Martínez was hired in 1956, and the church’s bilingual programming expanded. Martínez would eventually serve as associate pastor.
Two decades later, in 1976, Father Joaquin A. Bazan would become the church’s first Latino Pastor. During Father Bazan’s tenure, the annual Easter procession through the surrounding neighborhood was instituted. The procession, which celebrates Good Friday with a Drama of the Passion performed in Spanish, continues to this day.
Over the decades, Sacred Heart Church became an important institution and social space within Washington, as illustrated by its role during times of upheaval. During both the 1968 and 1991 riots, the shrine served as a community center, providing food and refuge.
Sacred Heart Church continued to expand its programming, with Father Peter Long offering a Sunday Mass in Vietnamese and Father O’Malley offering a mass in French Creole for Haitian parishioners. The parish has been described as “one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the Archdiocese of Washington.”
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
DC Inventory (Interior Sanctuary): February 26, 2026
National Register: July 30, 2026
]]>The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostles was founded in 1858 with the purpose of converting non-Catholic Americans to Catholicism. To this end, the Paulists established their own educational curriculum to ordain priests at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York. Upon the establishment of the Catholic University of America, the Paulists transferred their seminary to DC, building Saint Thomas Aquinas College on the university grounds. In 1911, with a desire for independence from the university and a need for more space, the Paulists purchased twenty-five acres near the school, known as the Stewart property for its nineteenth-century owner. The new Saint Thomas Aquinas College opened in 1914. It was formally dedicated in 1916, at which time it was renamed St. Paul’s College. Students lived, studied and worshipped in the building according to a rigorous discipline.
This original building was designed by the firm of Frederick V. Murphy (1879-1958) and Walter B. Olmsted (1871-1937) and was one of the architecture firm’s first major commissions. The firm would go on to establish itself as a prominent practice, gaining notoriety primarily for its work with the Catholic Church and associated institutions, including numerous buildings on the campuses of the Catholic University and Georgetown University. In addition to Murphy’s and Olmsted’s work at Catholic University, where they designed at least eight educational buildings, dormitories, the gym and the library, the firm produced many other churches, convents, and government, commercial and residential buildings in DC and beyond.
As St. Paul’s work expanded during the next decades, so too did the college building. In several phases of construction, beginning in the 1930s, the school extended its main block and added perpendicular rear wings, forming the building footprint that exists today. These wings accommodated a convent, additional residential quarters, a new chapel, and a dining area. All were designed by different architects whose designs were deferential to the original Murphy and Olmsted building.
DC Inventory: November 16, 2017
National Register: September 13, 2018
]]>