Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Rowlett

The little church has survived closure and a midnight move. The Dallas Morning News reported that twelve farming families built it in 1899 on Main Street, having met in homes before then and waited for a priest who rode out from Dallas. The parish closed it in the 1950s, then reopened it after an uproar. After a new building opened on Hickox Road in 1992, a contractor moved the old church three miles in March 1995, a trip of more than six hours. Knights of Columbus volunteers restored it, including its German stained glass.

What the plaque says

Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Rowlett Second Catholic church organized in Dallas County, Sacred Heart owes its origins to the devotion of an Irishman, Patrick McEntee (1846 - 1921), who came to Texas in 1874. Farmer and merchant, McEntee helped build the railroad in this area. Tradition holds that services were conducted at his home before this church was built. The parish's first baptism in 1898 was that of his grandchild. McEntee provided the land for Sacred Heart Church and cemetery. Built in 1899, this structure was dedicated in 1900 by Bishop E. J. Dunne. The thirteen stained glass windows were reputedly imported from Germany as memorial tributes. One near the altar was donated by Bishop Dunne. In 1922 parishioners resolved that their building should face the new Bankhead Highway. They turned it around and reset it on the original foundation. The cedars backing the church once stood in front. Ladies of the Altar Society raised the funds for substantial remodeling of the Gothic Revival style edifice in 1955-56. Population loss threatened to close the church, but the membership grew as newcomers settled in the community. Weekly mass is celebrated now for a fellowship which includes descendants of the earliest families. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 6.8 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Fair Park — 16 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 16 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 16 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• City of Rowlett — 2.3 mi
• William Sachse Cemetery — 3.4 mi
• Garland Lodge No. 441, A.F. & A.M. — 4.0 mi
• Garland — 4.5 mi