Gone…
Crib fire flattens historical church
Guyana Chronicle
December 28, 2004
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PARISHONERS gathered in hope yesterday afternoon at the blackened and flattened site of their Sacred Heart Church that for more than a century stood proud and tall, sentinel-like with its twin towers on Main Street, Georgetown.

LANDMARK GONE: the Sacred Heart
Church stood in the foreground for
almost 150 years.		 TWIN TOWERS - the Sacred Heart Church
(From Guyana Heritage website)

Fire on Christmas morning destroyed the church and the nearby Sacred Heart Primary School but firefighters battled valiantly to save buildings close by, including those housing the offices of Universal Airlines and Solomon’s Enterprises Ltd., which were threatened by the raging flames.

“It’s gone now”, a parishioner shook his head sadly as he and others assembled yesterday for the usual Monday night prayer meeting at the site.

They decided to meet there although their church, their sanctuary in good times and bad for almost a century and a half, was no more.

“A time to break down and a time to build up. Blessed be the name of God”, said a note of the meeting at the site yesterday afternoon faxed to the press by a church member.

The Roman Catholic church was one of the country’s oldest historical buildings and a national heritage site.

UP IN FLAMES: fire sweeps through
the historical building on Christmas
morning.		FIRE SPREADS: the Sacred Heart Primary
School on fire.

Church members suspect the fire was electrical as decorative lights in the nativity crib at the altar began sparking during the mass.

Eyewitnesses told the Chronicle that it was around 08:45 hrs when the final hymn during the Christmas morning mass was being sung, that one of the decorative light bulbs around the symbolic crib depicting the birth of Christ exploded and started the fire.

They said the crib which was made of wood and straw - flammable materials - was immediately engulfed in flames and the fire quickly spread to all parts of the building made mostly of pine wood.

In a matter of minutes, the entire building was ablaze and worshippers fled.

WHERE NOW? Teachers of the Sacred
Heart Primary School watch their school
in flames.		ACROSS THE STREET: a section of the
crowd at the scene.

Fortunately, all of the 65 parishioners who were at the traditional Christmas Day mass, escaped unhurt.

The nearby Sacred Heart Primary School was also razed to the ground and alternative accommodation would have to be found for the students and 45 teachers when the new school term begins January 3 next.

Witnesses said firefighters who arrived shortly after the fire began could not have done anything to save the buildings except to put out the blaze and help prevent the flames from spreading to nearby structures.

Hundreds gathered at the scene as word of the tragedy spread, among them teachers and old students of the school.

Members of the church are lamenting the loss of invaluable records and treasured items which they described as "irreplaceable."


"The building could be rebuilt. That is the easy part, but the historical records and the large amount of invaluable, unique treasured items which were found only there cannot be replaced," one sadly recounted yesterday.

The members noted too that the Sacred Heart Church had a special and distinctive appeal in that people had a preference to do weddings there instead of in their own parishes, and at Christmas would also leave their parishes to attend Christmas mass at the Main Street Church.

Former Mayor of Georgetown and a member of the Roman Catholic Church, Compton Young, recalled that the Sacred Heart Church building was constructed originally to cater for the Portuguese immigrants to worship in their native language as they could not read or write the official language, English.

In addition, he said a special priest was brought from Portugal to conduct religious ceremonies because of the language constraint which faced the immigrants at the time.

He also pointed out that the hand-bell chimes which were in the towers of the church were the only one of its kind in Guyana, and perhaps in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Mr. Young noted too that some years after the church was established, the Sisters of Mercy from Ireland established the primary school.

The school was taken over by the then government in 1976 when a decision was implemented to end church control of schools.

The Church of the Sacred Heart was built by Father Schembri, an Italian.

The website of the National Trust of Guyana describes it as “A fine example of renaissance architecture”.

It was constructed during 1859–1861 and was opened at midnight mass December 25 1861.

It succumbed to raging flames Christmas Day, 2004.

The church was among the 13 monuments selected in Georgetown's nomination of structures and places as a World Heritage Site.

It was an imposing wooden structure with towers reaching into the skies and a clock that chimed every hour.

Despite its imposing façade, built mainly of wood, inside the church was uniquely intimate with a wonderfully decorated altar, beautifully illuminated, giving it a very radiant touch whenever services were held. (See editorial).

The plot of land on which the church was built was bought for $1,000 and it is estimated that the total cost of constructing the building was $18,000.