Church of the Sacred Heart

Located at 9300 Community Lane in Prince George County, Church of the Sacred Heart Parish was founded in 1906.  After the Civil War, cities, towns, and rural districts experienced increasing migration from Europe.  New cultures and farming techniques in Virginia created a semblance of Eastern Europe in the small community of Estes (original. called Wells Station) in Prince George County, where a small group of Czech and Slovak immigrants resettled in a new land, the first of whom was Joseph Machat in 1887.

Settlers came from the Province of Bohemia (now a part of the Czech Republic) and were predominately Catholic.  They hoped to form a Church community with a Czech-speaking priest.  In 1905, Father Jon Konicek was sent to pastor the growing community.

The first church building was constructed on 11 acres of land acquired from Marie Hanzlik; whose son married the daughter of Joseph Machat.  The land was deeded to the Diocese of Richmond and on September 28, 1906, (the feast of Saint Wenceslaus, patron saint of the Czechs), the church was dedicated and became the first Czech Catholic Church in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The church was built by the Czechs with lumber cut and milled from their wooded farmlands.  A rectory was constructed adjacent to the church in the same manner.  A parish cemetery was established with its first recorded interment in 1908.  At least fifteen of the first Czech families are buried here, and many of their descendants are members of Sacred Heart Parish. 

It was a time when the railroad assigned the names to the villages along its routes.  Since the stores and farms in and around Estes were owned and operated by the Czechs from the area of Bohemia, in 1911 residents of Estes met with the president of Norfolk and Western Railroad to request that the name of Estes be changed to “Bohemia.”  The president suggested “New Bohemia” and the community retains that name to this date. 

Over the years with the growth surrounding New Bohemia, the original wooden church needed repairs and expansion, and was replace in 1951.  The present church was dedicated on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 25, 2006, (the 100th anniversary of the parish). It is the nature of the Czech people to save and reuse as many things as possible; the preservation and re-use of furnishings was evident in the transition from 1951 to 2006. 

Because of its significance in the acculturation of the Czech-Slovak immigrants into American, Church of the Sacred Heart Parish, buildings, grounds and cemetery, were entered into the Virginia Landmarks Registry and the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service on February 8, 2012. 

Just as our founders did, we still roll up our sleeves and volunteer; for stronger than church buildings or material things, the people are the Church.  We worship, follow Christ's teachings and carry them beyond the church doors.  Whether cleaning the church or grounds, celebrating Eucharist, teaching our children, or being part of the many other ministries at Sacred Heart, we reach out to those in need - a legacy our founding families would be proud we are continuing. 

Sacred Heart was born from the faith and determination of immigrant Catholic families who established a new community in Prince George County more than a century ago. That spirit continues today as Sacred Heart welcomes a growing and increasingly diverse parish family, including a vibrant Spanish-speaking Catholic community. The languages and cultures may have changed through the generations, but the mission remains the same: to worship God, grow in faith, serve one another, and pass the Catholic faith to the generations that follow.