Sacred Heart Major Seminary

The main building of Sacred Heart Major Seminary viewed from Chicago Boulevard Early years Between 1804 and 1886, the leadership of the Diocese of Detroit tried three times to establish a seminary to educate and form the diocese's own priests. Each attempt failed, the last one being St. Francis Diocesan Seminary in Monroe, Michigan. It opened in 1886 and was closed by Bishop John Foley in 1889 because of the financial stress on the diocese of maintaining a seminary. [ 4 ] The fourth attempt at founding a seminary succeeded. On September 11, 1919, Bishop Michael J. Gallagher established Sacred Heart Seminary on Martin Place in Detroit. [ 5 ] The Catholic population of the city of Detroit and surrounding communities was exploding as people were emigrating to Detroit to service the expanding automobile industry. Bishop Gallagher, who became bishop of the Diocese of Detroit in July 1918, realized he could not rely on priests borrowed from other dioceses, nor priests imported from Europe, to staff his parishes and meet the spiritual needs of the faithful under his care. He needed a diocesan seminary to train his own "homegrown" priests. [ 6 ] This first incarnation of Sacred Heart Seminary offered the first two years of high school. Junior and senior classes were added the next two years, and the first class graduated in 1922. College-level classes were added in the fall. [ 5 ]

Enrollment soon outstripped the capacity of the two cramped houses on Martin Place and later an apartment building on nearby Alexandrine Avenue. After a successful fundraising campaign in 1920–1921, Bishop Gallagher purchased twenty-four acres of farmland in February 1923 [ 7 ] and began construction of a new facility at the corner of Chicago Boulevard and Linwood Avenue. "It's God's work! God wills it!" the bishop exclaimed. [ 8 ] The new building, designed in Gothic Revival style (see "Architecture" below), opened on September 22, 1924, at the end of the trolley line across the street from one of the earliest Detroit suburbs, the exclusive Boston-Edison subdivision. [ 5 ] The first college class graduated in 1926; these graduates were ordained in 1930. [ 5 ] Major donors to the construction of the seminary included prominent Detroit families such as the Fishers , Crowleys and Van Antwerps. [ 5 ]

Some significant happenings during Sacred Heart's mid-century decades include the granting of the academic charter and first degrees awarded, 1931; the seminary celebrates as the Detroit diocese becomes an archdiocese and Edward F. Mooney becomes the first Archbishop of Detroit, 1937; and the seminary community exceeds ninety percent participation in the federal war stamp and war bond program and receives the "Minute Man" flag, 1944. John Donovan and Henry Donnelly are consecrated Detroit auxiliary bishops in 1954, the first Sacred Heart alumni to be elevated to the episcopacy (there have been thirty-one since, see "Bishop alumni" below. [ 9 ] World War II enlistment and the installment of the draft had a significant effect on enrollment and subsequent graduation numbers. Throughout the 1930s, college graduation numbers averaged in the mid-to-upper thirties. In 1941, that total dropped to twenty-five, and in 1946, the college had only six graduates. The number of graduates jumped to forty-eight in 1950 and averaged around fifty per year throughout the 1950s. [ 10 ] The student body and faculty contributed to the war effort by raising money to purchase two ambulances for use by the armed forces. To accommodate the post-war jump in enrollment, the seminary converted three open dormitories into private rooms, adding fifty-two more rooms to house the 110 philosophy students. [ 11 ] A highlight for the seminarians: The college Class of 1943 raised funds through a "Movie Drive" to purchase two 35 millimeter feature film projectors. [ 12 ] The carbon arc projectors were installed in the seminary auditorium to provide entertainment for seminarians who rarely were permitted to leave the seminary grounds during the school year. The Movie Drive was one of the culminating projects to celebrate Sacred Heart's Silver Anniversary year of 1944. [ 13 ] (The vintage projectors remain today in the rear loft of the auditorium, although they no longer function.) [ 14 ]

The seminary continued to grow and, by 1959, it became apparent that housing both high school and college programs in one building was infeasible. Construction was begun on another building, the Cardinal Mooney Latin School, on the southeast corner of the seminary grounds. This building was completed in 1961. However, in 1970, the seminary high school was closed, leaving only the college-level program. [ 5 ]