1897
Sacred Heart Catholic Church - Fort Dodge 

Parish History

   Sacred Heart Parish was established in June 1897. Just as the city of Fort Dodge was growing rapidly in the last decade of the 19th century. so was the Catholic community of Fort Dodge. This growth necessitated subdivision of the Corpus Christi Parish. Archbishop Hennessey of Dubuque tasked Father Edmond Heelan (later second bishop of Sioux City Diocese) with the mission of establishing the new parish and the construction of the new church. This was accomplished within four months with the first services conducted in the new Sacred Heart Church on October 24, 1897. Church construction cost approximately $4.500 (Pratt 187). The church was a wood frame structure on the site of the present church (Natte "Faith 20).
   Eighteen years later the parish had outgrown its original building. A new church was begun on a "pay as you go basis with lowa architect William Steele's design in Romanesque style with prairie school influences (Natte "Faith 20). Work was then begun in June 1915 on the basement of the present church. The basement was completed in 1916 and served as the church for the next six years. Father Heelan was ordained as the Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Sioux City, and Father William Desmond was named the successor at Sacred Heart. It was under his pastorate that the church was completed and then dedicated by Bishop Heelan in November 1922. Sacred Heart Parish was split in 1946 to create Holy Rosary Parish, the third in Fort Dodge, Over the years, the church was completed section by section. The Munich stained glass windows, murals and the marble Communion rails were all completed between 1930 and 1940. The marble sanctuary figures were completed in 1962 as a result of a bequest from the late Father Sweeney. Later a new rectory was built. St. Theresa's Chapel was completed, the reconciliation room was built the protective coverings over the stained glass windows were completed and central air conditioning was installed.
   Concurrent with his plans for a church, Father Heelan included a school and a convent. In January 1902, lasses began in a frame building across from the church under the operation of the Sisters of Charity. BVM. A new three-story brick school with a high school and commercial department were completed in 1903. The school remained open until the high school was transferred to the St. Edmond Central High School in 1955.
   The 1903 building was razed and replaced with a new elementary school in 1963 and converted to a middle school in 1981. The school closed in 1998 and reopened in 2000 as an elementary school, until construction of the central elementary school on St. Edmond Central Campus was completed. The school now serves as a parish center, and portions of the building are leased by Head Start, a pre-school program Sacred Heart Church is architecturally significant and is recognized regionally, if not nationally, as a unique Prairie-Romanesque structure. It was designed by William Steele, a noted Prairie School architect who had been with the Chicago School.

Sacred Heart became part of the Catholic Team Parishes of Webster County in July 2000.

2006 - 150 years of faith in Webster County.

2006 - Bishop Nickless decrees that the Parish of the Holy Trinity be established.  Holy Trinity Parish is now the official name of our parish in Webster County while maintaining the existing names of each church worship site.

2019 - Last Mass held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.