Coraopolis Motherhouse

In a private ceremony, Monsignor John S. Gorzynski (right) and Father John Pudlo blessed the Coraopolis site for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Province in the presence of Mother Mary Leona Chojnacka (right) and her council. 

Photographed in 1930, are Provincial Superior MM Leona Chojnacka (second sister from the left), with her council, as well as Monsignor John S. Gorzynski (center) and Anthony Pyzdrowski, the combined architect, contractor, and construction engineer of the new Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Motherhouse, as the digging began for the build.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Provincial complex during construction in the early 1930s. Depression-era construction costs would be a source of stress for Mother Mary Leona Chojnacka, who died five years after the completion of the project, at age 52.

Bishop Hugh Charles Boyle officiated at the May 31, 1931, ceremony laying the cornerstone of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Motherhouse in Coraopolis, PA.

On May 31, 1931, the tenth anniversary of the founding of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Province (while in the temporary convent in McKeesport), Bishop Hugh Charles Boyle officiated at the ceremony laying the cornerstone for the new provincial motherhouse.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Provincial complex, photographed in the 1930s, nearly completed.

An early photograph of the completed and landscaped Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Motherhouse in the 1930s.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Province chapel interior.