Sacred Heart, Bluefield

1017 Wyoming St., Bluefield, WV 24701-3151

Many Catholics came to work in the coal fields in southern West Virginia at the end of the nineteenth century. The families were visited occasionally by the priest assigned to St. Mary's, Wytheville, until the first resident pastor, Rev. Emil Olivier, was appointed in 1894. Mass was held at the Bluefield Inn and at an old laundry until the first church was built in 1895. A new Spanish­-gothic style church was completed in 1925 on a lot donated by Mr. P.J. Kelly. For thirty-five years the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus staffed the parish school, founded in 1926. A separate mission for Black Catholic members of the community, Our Lady of Lourdes, was established by 1940 and was served by Oblate Fathers out of Princeton over its fifteen-year history.