The first celebration of a Catholic mass in what is now Charlotte County is said to have been when Ponce deLeon arrived here in the 1520s, some 500 years ago, but the roots of an actual Sacred Heart Parish start in 1892 when a visiting priest said a Mass in a store at Marion and King Street. A building dedicated to the parish, however, was not constructed until almost 40 years later. Until then services were conducted in the Hotel Charlotte Harbor. The first celebrated Mass at that first Sacred Heart Church sanctuary was at 10 a.m on Christmas morning in 1929. The original church seated 125 parishioners. The little church was replaced in 1965. And that structure after being badly damaged in 2004 by Charley was replaced by the current church building in 2008. The church pictured here seated 125 parishioners.
