SALISBURY — On June 7, the same day as its patronal feast and mortgage payoff, Sacred Heart Parish in Salisbury also broke ground for a new rectory. Hundreds gathered for the momentous occasion, marking the start of the building’s construction.
The two-story, 5,000-square-foot rectory will provide housing on site for the parish’s clergy for the first time since the new church and school were built in 2009. It will also include living space for possible additional clergy members.
The project will funded by parishioners over the next three years. Gray Stout, a former Sacred Heart parishioner, is the architect. Stout participated in the groundbreaking on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart with Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey, as well as parishioners and staff members involved in the project. Stout was also the architect for the church and school.
Located just east of the church in a pre-existing clearing, the rectory will include what Sacred Heart Pastor Father John Eckert calls “multigenerational housing” with five bedrooms and a chapel. This will allow ample space for a pastor, parochial vicar, seminarian and guest. The fifth bedroom will be properly equipped for a retired or handicapped priest.
Central Piedmont Builders will begin construction in July and will complete the project in late summer 2025.
— Annie Ferguson
Related: Salisbury parish ‘blows up’ mortgage on Solemnity of the Sacred Heart