Sacred Heart Academy

Bishop Andrew Byrne, Arkansas's first Catholic bishop, was living in Helena by 1860, and the Sisters of Mercy who arrived in January 1858 ran a day school here as St. Catherine's Academy. Byrne died on June 10, 1862, and was buried in the Sisters' garden; his remains were later moved to a crypt under the cathedral in Little Rock. Weeks later Union forces housed refugees on the Sisters' property, some of the roughly 2,000 formerly enslaved people who followed the army into town, and the Mother Superior wrote to General Curtis to ask protection for the convent.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Delta Cultural Center — 0.3 mi
  A state museum in downtown Helena where King Biscuit Time, the longest-running daily blues radio show, is broadcast live from the Visitors Center.
• Elaine Massacre Memorial — 0.6 mi
  A memorial dedicated in 2019 in Helena for the Black people killed by white mobs and troops in the 1919 Elaine Massacre, the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history.
• Freedom Park — 0.6 mi
  An outdoor Delta Cultural Center site on the ground of a Civil War contraband camp, where thousands of people who had escaped slavery sheltered and men enlisted.
• Mississippi River State Park — 11 mi
  A state park and gateway to the St. Francis National Forest, where the river, Crowley's Ridge and the Delta meet, with a Trail of Tears site at the Mississippi and St. Francis confluence.

More markers nearby

• Battery D — 0.3 mi
• General J.F. Fagan's Attack — 0.3 mi
• Fort Curtis, 1862-1867 — 0.3 mi
• U.S.C.T. in Helena — 0.3 mi