Must-See RVA! — Sacred Heart Cathedral

800 South Cathedral Place
Built, 1903 – 1905
Architect, Joseph Hubert McGuire
VDHR 127-0137

Monroe Park’s sentinel of morality.

Framed by Richmond’s Monroe Park and forming the visual pivot between the city’ s commercial area and the residential Fan District, the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is Virginia’s most distinguished ecclesiastical representation of the Italian Renaissance Revival style.

(The Flemish American) — Thomas Fortune Ryan

Begun in 1903. completed in 1906, and regarded at once by contemporaries as the most ornate and beautiful church edifice in the South, the Cathedral was the gift of financier, promoter, and philanthropist Thomas Fortune Ryan, of Virginia and New York, and his wife, Ida Barry Ryan. The Ryans’ largest single gift to the Catholic Church, it is representative of the monumental benefactions given to churches and universities by the barons of American industry and finance at the turn of the century.

(LOC) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 85

Also significant as a landmark in the growth of the Catholic Church in Virginia, Sacred Heart supplanted St. Peter’s Church, Richmond’s first cathedral, as the seat of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. The consecration ceremonies held on November 29, 1906,brought together the most eminent Catholic churchmen in the country for one of the most colorful and impressive ceremonies in Richmond’s history.

[CCUS] — Right Reverend John McGill, D.D., Third Bishop of Richmond

The first movement towards the erection of a larger cathedral in Richmond dates to the period just following the Civil War. In 1867 Bishop John McGill purchased the eastern portion of the block on which the present cathedral stands. In view of the beginning of Richmond’s expansion westward, McGill dreamed of a magnificent new structure which would replace St. Peter’s on Grace Street as the principal church of the diocese, while serving as the parish church of the city’s west end.

[CCUS] — Cathedral of the Sacred Heart nave

The paucity, as well as the poverty, of Catholics in the City prevented further action on McGill’s plans, however, until 1882. On November 17th of that year at a meeting of prominent Catholic laymen held in the basement of St. Peter’s, means were proposed for raising funds for a more “fitting Cathedral.” This movement met with some success in 1884 when Bishop C Keane purchased the remainder of the present block.

(VDHR) — 1981 nomination photo

In 1901 Thomas Fortune Ryan, after conversations with his friend, the Rt. Rev. August Van DeVyver, Bishop of Richmond, announced his intention to donate $250,000 for the erection of a new Richmond cathedral. Very soon after this announcement, he approached Joseph H. McGuire with a proposal to draw up plans.

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards)

According to contemporary accounts, Ryan so admired McGuire’s design that he agreed to build the edifice even though the lowest estimate of its cost far exceeded the quarter-of-a-million-dollar mark. Mrs. Ryan was responsible for donating the Cathedral’s handsome interior furnishings, also expressly designed by the architect. The Cathedral cornerstone, which had been cut and wrought years before in the Garden of Gethsemane, was officially laid on June 5, 1903. Construction of the Cathedral was completed three years later. (VDHR)

Sources

• [CCUS] The Catholic Church in the United States of America. Ernesto Begni. 1914.

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