Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: The Church of the Sacred Heart was constructed in 1905. The Right Reverend Edward Allen, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mobile, which at the time encompassed Pensacola, appointed the pastor of Pensacola’s St. Michael’s Church, Father Robert Fullerton, to supervise the building of the Gothic Revival style church. The building was barely completed when the “great Pensacola hurricane of 1906” demolished the church’s roof. The damaged building was rebuilt and dedicated by Bishop Allen in April 1907 with a parish of 25 families. The church housed its Catholic parishioners for 50 years until the congregation moved to a larger facility in 1956. The church was sold to the City of Pensacola in 1956 with a deed restriction that the building could never be resold for use as a Protestant church. After serving as a concert hall for the Greater Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and then as a youth recreation center, the building was sold in 1965 to the Central Church of Christ for use as a Protestant church after Pope Paul VI lifted the deed restriction. Unity of Pensacola purchased the church in 1982 and restored its 18 original Belgian-made stained glass windows.