The Chapel on the Hill

There's a little old chapel on the hill
Where everything is so quiet and still
It's filled with memories of hundreds of years
And the walls echo with sounds of song and of tears

The Jesuits who lived here now are gone
But all they have done will linger on
In the trees they planted and the barns they built
From morning to night they worked to the hilt

The hardships were many in those bygone days
To hide from detection, they were disguised many ways
They taught the sacraments and tended the sick
When the needy were hungry they fed them real quick

Below the ground where the headstones stand
Lay some of the loved ones who worked this land
Some of the graves have seen many a day
Others hold some who lately passed away

The parish is big now, the chapel too small
Down below the modem one has room for all
But we did not abandon the one on the hill
There are masses, funerals and weddings still

Eleanor Assante

Thus, Sacred Heart Chapel on the Hill was built at a time in history when it was illegal to be Catholic. Jesuit Fathers built the original "chapel house," the present sanctuary and sacristy, about 1741 as a "Mass-House" residence. In the 1820's the main part of the present chapel was added. The nave and choir were constructed between 1814 and 1832. During the night of May 15, 1853, the chapel was destroyed by fire with the adjacent buildings, first the rectory, then the old novitiate. The stonewalls of the chapel, however, remained standing. Over 100 years of records were destroyed, all except the Baptismal and Marriage Register dating back to 1819. The house furnishings and the other rectory contents were not all destroyed by the fire. However, the sacred decorations and altar vase were.

Rebuilding of the chapel was not completed until 1856. The walls began to bulge, having been weakened by the fire. In 1874 passing iron rods from side to side (visible today) strengthened the walls. The bell tower was built in 1856 in front of the church to give it its present shape. Previously the bell had been hung from the limb of a tree. A new 1,000-pound bell was added in 1889. The roads to the hill were essentially what they are today, including the road down the hill to the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was primarily a road to a cultivated field in the early days. Another road from Route 450 is evident just below the north side of the old part of the cemetery that entered the hill at the rear of the present School Building. Oral tradition tells us that the priests used to walk this old road and pray their Daily Office.

A unique sundial, with its weather beaten wooden indicator and its meridian, is still in place and can be seen on the south wall of the Chapel. A present-day scholar would place the church in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea if he interpreted the reading on this old dial. No record can be found that tells of the origin of the first sundial or explains the discrepancy in the reading. It is reported that it is a copy made by Francis J. Deutsch Sr., replacing and duplicating an original that had been badly damaged by the fire in 1853.

White Marsh was renamed "Church of the Sacred Heart" in 1893. The interior of the Chapel at Sacred Heart was remodeled in 1916 and new pews were installed. Between the years 1967 and 1970, when the Catholic Church was undergoing numerous liturgical changes, the interior was greatly altered. The altar was dismantled, stripped of its candelabras and angels, the altar rail was removed and the statues were painted white. Its historic interior was barren. In 1970, when Father John F. Hogan arrived at Sacred Heart, and subsequently was appointed Pastor, he recognized the great historical value of the Chapel and immediately began a long-range project to rebuild and restore it as close to its original beauty as possible. The woodwork was repaired and refinished or replaced. The walls and ceilings were patched, primed and repainted. The bell tower and the outside of the church were repaired and repainted. With the help of the Explorer Scouts, a very large segment of the cemetery was cleared, its old tombstones set up and repaired. Many devoted parishioners, known as the Restoration Society of Sacred Heart Church, with the encouragement and help of Father Hogan, and the direction of Edward Geiz, who did much of the work himself, returned Sacred Heart Chapel to its historic beauty.