You are here

West Virginia » Capital Center and South Central West Virginia » Charleston » Downtown East » Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral

Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral

-A A +A
1895–1897, Herman L. Rowe. 101 Broad Street (between Virginia and Quarrier sts.)
  • Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral (West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Michael Keller)
  • Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral (Michelle Krone)
  • Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral (Michelle Krone)
  • Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Co-Cathedral (Michelle Krone)

A salient component of Charleston's ecclesiastical center, Sacred Heart is a bold Richardsonian Romanesque structure. Its Kentucky architect, who graduated from the Stuttgart (Germany) Polytechnic School and practiced in Chicago and Nashville before settling in Lexington, also designed Charleston's Burlew Opera House (no longer standing) and the now-remodeled Masonic Temple ( CH15). A prominent tower with an open, arcaded belfry anchors the southern corner of the facade, and a shorter sibling at the opposite corner stands at a 45-degree angle to everything else. The warm-hued stonework is laid in quarry-faced courses.

Inside, the broad nave, barely perceptible transepts, and shallow chancel seem more akin to a Protestant auditorium than to a Catholic sanctuary. Three large stained glass windows imported from Germany depict the Nativity, Last Supper, and Ascension of the Virgin. The Riordan Company of Cincinnati fabricated the smaller windows that show various saints and church fathers. Parochial buildings flank the church, and the Tudor Revival Charleston Catholic High School, dating from 1940, is across Virginia Street. A co-cathedral, Sacred Heart shares honors with St. Joseph Cathedral ( WH12) as the seat of the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,