History

Immaculate Heart of Mary parish was founded as a Polish ethnic parish in 1897. It was the third Polish parish in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, after St. Stanislaus in the Strip District (the mother church of Pittsburgh Polish Catholics) and St. Adalbert on the South Side. Starting in 1885, many immigrants from Poland arrived and settled on Herron Hill, above the Strip District. They first attended St. Stanislaus Church, but it was not an easy journey, due to a set of Pennsylvania Railroad tracks that they had to cross over (today, a vehicular bridge brings people safely across those tracks and up to Polish Hill). Within time, Herron Hill became "Polish Hill", and the residents petitioned the bishop to found a new parish for them. The cornerstone for the first building, a combined church/school/convent was laid in October 1896, and it was dedicated in August 1897. 

At the turn of the 20th century, it was time to build a permanent church. The ecclesiastical architect William Ginther of Akron, Ohio, designed the majestic church in the Polish-Cathedral style. It was intentionally modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, most notably with the main central dome and two smaller side domes. The cornerstone was laid in 1904, and the church was solemnly dedicated on December 3, 1905, in the presence of Archbishop Diomede Falconio, Apostolic Delegate to the United States. The specifications of the church are impressive given its status as a simple parish church. It is 200 feet long by 110 feet wide, and can seat 1800 souls. Eight altars, including seven side altars and a great 50 foot tall High Altar, as well as the pulpit, are carved from Spanish White Oak and edged in 23 karat gold. 53 stained glass windows from Austria shine divine light throughout the vast 43 foot tall space. The central dome measures 50 feet in diameter and 98 feet high on the inside, while on the exterior, it rises to 138 feet, culminating in a twelve foot high cross which blesses over the whole of the neighborhood. The Catholic faith was central to the lives of these early immigrants, and the building is a physical manifestation of that reality. 

Throughout the years, the parish has sustained itself through times of triumph and trial. The parish has welcomed esteemed visitors like Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, General Joseph Haller, a great Polish soldier during World War I, and General Theodore Bor-Komorowski, hero of the Warsaw Insurrection. Sadly, after 101 years of service to children, the parish school closed in 1997. The spirit of determination of the parishioners has carried them through the last century in the 21st century. The parish is well known for its outstanding decorations at Easter and Christmas that draw the faithful to church from around the region. Even in modern times, the church has continued to value, transmit, and promote its Polish heritage. In 2010, a memorial service was held to honor the victims of the Polish Air Force crash that killed the President of Poland at the time. In 2014, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope St. John Paul II's former private secretary, presented a relic of the pontiff's blood stained cassock to the church. It is now displayed in the side altar dedicated to Divine Mercy. And the parish was the first one in the United States to pray the Divine Mercy novena (since 1979), a tradition which continues today.

The devotion of the Polish Catholic people on Polish Hill has been visually revealed in stone, brick, wood, and gold. From the men who worked 16 hour days, just to come home and build the church, to the priests who have guided the parish, to the people who still maintain the church, Immaculate Heart of Mary has a proud history, and looks to the future where it can continue being that beacon of faith high atop Polish Hill. 

Niepokalanego Serca Maryi, módl się za nami.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Sources: Diocese of Pittsburgh website (history of parish) Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (historic landmark plaque) Parish Seventh-Fifth (1972) and Centennial (1997) Aniversary Books