Parish History

Sacred Heart Church
Established 1878
More than 800 households

In 1878, the first Mass in rustic Bloomfield, a land of tobacco and farms, was said by Father Joseph Reid of St. Joseph Cathedral, Hartford, of which Bloomfield was a mission. Father Reid was succeeded by Father William Harty who built a church on Woodland Avenue in 1878. Bishop Thomas Galberry blessed the cornerstone of Sacred Heart Mission, and later Bishop Lawrence S. McMahon dedicated the finished edifice. In 1881, Bloomfield became the mission of St. Bernard, Tariffville. At the turn of the century, Father John T. Downey of the newly created St. Michael parish in Hartford ministered to Bloomfield. In 1924 when Father Francis P. Nolan built St. Justin Church in Hartford, Sacred Heart became its mission. In 1934, Sacred Heart reverted again to the care of St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield. Finally, in 1947, Sacred Heart mission became a parish with Father Harold F. Daly as first resident pastor. Ground was broken on May 13, 1962, for a new church and school, staffed by the Sisters of Charity from Baltic. Sacred Heart Church and School was dedicated on April 27, 1963, by Archbishop Henry J. O'Brien. Unfortunately, the school was forced to close in June 1988, and the building was converted into a Family Life Center. In 1996, Christ the King Church, Bloomfield, merged with Sacred Heart.