Sacred Heart Church

Sacred Heart Parish has been thriving in the Hill section of New Haven since the mid-1800s. Gerard Hallock and Thomas Trowbridge built Sacred Heart Parish in 1851. It is located across from Trowbridge Square on Liberty Street and Columbus Avenue. It was originally known as South Congregational Church, but the church faltered when Hallock claimed he was pro-slavery. Afterwards, most of the congregation left. In 1875, South Congregational Church was bought for $40,000 and renamed Sacred Heart Parish. Sacred Heart Parish built a convent and rectory soon after. Today, the New Haven Youth Ministry is located in Sacred Heart’s Parish Center. Sacred Heart is currently the only Catholic parish serving the Hill area. The congregation consists of African-Americans, Haitian Americans, Hispanics, Italian, Irish, and Portuguese. On October 25, 2001, Sacred Heart celebrated its 125th anniversary.

Suburban migration in the 1960s-1980s caused the decline of the economy in the Trowbridge neighborhood and a corresponding loss in the church congregation. Father James Richardson and Father Robert Newman were invited to take on Sacred Heart Parish in 1990. Their mission was to “revitalize the church and reconnect it to the neighborhood.” According to Father Richardson, “When we first came to Sacred Heart, it was a corpse not yet buried. We came to put life back into the church, and we had a lot of work to do. Our goal was to rebuild a small, integral community where people could really be neighbors to each other, own their own homes, and raise families.”
When asked about the neighborhoods’ past conditions, he responded, “The neighborhood was poor, run down, and people were afraid to come out onto the street to meet one another. There were lots of drugs and gunshots were often heard at night.” The Trowbridge Square neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, which also made the community want to take the neighborhood back from the drugs and violence.

Sacred Heart Parish has succeeded in reconnecting itself to the neighborhood and has made a positive difference through the Trowbridge Renaissance. The Trowbridge Renaissance was formed by residents, Sacred Heart parishioners, and ECCO (Elm City Congregations Organized). ECCO is another group fighting for affordable housing, cleaning up the neighborhood, and getting rid of drug trafficking throughout New Haven. Efforts to restore the Trowbridge area have succeeded in repaving sidewalks, fixing up the park, and rehabilitating houses. The Trowbridge Renaissance started neighborhood block watches and confronted drug dealers, telling them to leave their neighborhood. Now, as one walks down the street, a significant decrease in drug dealing is noted.

The Catholic Youth Ministry coordinator, Ricardo Gonzalez, provided more positive thoughts about Sacred Heart Church. “Sacred Heart is big on helping the community with food, clothing and other needs. Churches in general help people look at the church and neighborhood as an extended family. It is important to communicate with people outside of your immediate family. A positive future can continue to be in reach when people learn life skills and work together to solve community problems.” Gonzalez hopes that people in the community will continue to work together and encourage others to live in the neighborhood.

A New Haven Register reporter once claimed, “A once dying parish has rediscovered its mission and become a dynamic force in the rebirth of the city, its new vitality bodes well for the future.” In the last two decades, Sacred Heart has proven to be a useful asset to the neighborhood, revitalizing it and making it a wonderful place to live. As for the future, Father Richardson hopes the parish will grow to become an active part of the city. Sacred Heart Parish launched a project to help clean up the neighborhood and taught the neighborhood the true meaning of family.

- Crystal Fernandez