Restoration work continues in the basement of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lawrence. The repairs required in the basement are all-encompassing. Work is steady on both levels of the church and the end of the process can be seen, but no time-table for completion has been set yet.
December 18, 1924 . . . one hundred years ago last Wednesday a large crowd gathered into Sacred Heart church in Lawrence for its initial use and dedication. The group of Catholics celebrated the use of its new church after it outgrew the original building the parish used since it beginning in 1893.
December 18, 2024 . . . one hundred years later a small group of Sacred Heart parishioners gathered in the Lawrence Funeral Home (location for daily Mass in Lawrence) to again celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and observe the one hundredth anniversary of the Sacred Heart parish church.
The group moved over to Dick's Place in Lawrence after Mass for coffee and rolls in a celebratory gathering in memory of the occasion.
The activities in 2024 is not what was planned two years ago when the parish members started planning a suitable celebration to honor the 100th birthday of the church building. A renovation (to repair, to renewing, new painting, and other changes) were planned and as 2023 neared an end it looked as if the work would be completed well before the December 2024 deadline. However, fate had other plans.
As work was started on one of the final phases, the flooring, a fire burned during the night and by morning, a good size hole was burned in the floor, just in front of the front pews, and a thick smoky haze covered almost every inch of the main floor of the building as well as the basement.
The floor repair would have been easy enough to accomplish, but the smoke damage presented a whole new set of problems. Insurance coverage dictated a wholesale "redo" of the building. That included the painting be done again, the heating system be replace, the stain glass windows be taken out and cleaned and repaired as well as the entire basement gutted and rebuilt.
Public access to the building has been very limited in the past year as the repairs are completed. Substantial work has been done and the end is in sight, but not overnight. Plans will be made for an observance of the centennial celebration and the renovation completion.
During this past year, Pastor Morris and Parish Secretary Barb Janda have been keeping parish members up to date with the work being done. Following was the latest 'update' on the work.
Rebuilding Sacred Heart Church: Farris Construction guys came every day this week and were ripping out the floor in the church and repairing soft spots. It is ready for the sub floor and then wood floor and tile to be installed. Jean Kriz & Loren came and did a lot of trim work in the basement and installed a lot of the steel doors. Kucera's continue to paint in the basement. Char & Dan came and finished the stencil work in the sanctuary. The suspended ceiling company for the basement came finished up the grid work – they will get started soon. We are now working on replacing the contents of the building. We are compiling the list of 'everything' we need to start up again and reaching out to suppliers. We had another great week in the Church by the grace of God!!
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