Sacred Heart Church
The Catholics of Glendive first organized at St. Juliana’s, a 100-seat church purchased from the Congregationalists in 1886. After nearly forty years, they had outgrown those quarters. In 1924, architect Brynjulf Rivenes of Miles City designed a new Catholic church, inspired by Early Italian Christian and Romanesque styles of architecture. The two-tiered façade has twin lower arches framing double paired doors and a single upper arch framing the large circular window. The attached square campanile tower, with hipped roof, was designed to house the 1,300-pound bell cast for the old church in 1889 by McShane of Baltimore. Local builder John Holm won the construction bid for $50,000, and Father Michael Webber laid the cornerstone on May 10, 1925. Skilled masons surfaced the entire building with tan brick from Hebron, North Dakota. Complex patterns of red and tan brick highlight the façade, side entries, and tower. On May 31, 1926, Bishop Mathias Lenihan dedicated the 500-seat church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He personally donated the large window, which portrays the Sacred Heart of Jesus appearing to St. Margaret Mary and bears the bishop’s coat-of-arms and motto, “Fides et Caritas” (Faith and Charity). The feast of the Sacred Heart is celebrated annually in June. This plaque was erected in 1996, the seventieth anniversary year.
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