Sacred Heart’s post office opened in 1875, and 37% of its homes were built before 1940
Its Register listings are the Sacred Heart Public School and the Hotel Sacred Heart. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1965 on, and the census since 1880.
From Sacred Heart’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers
How Sacred Heart began
When was Sacred Heart founded?
1875
The Sacred Heart post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Sarred Heart (1867), Minnesota Crossing (1868) and Reishus (1877), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 76 in 18802020 census: 510151 years
Founding year: the first Sacred Heart post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Sacred Heart’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Sacred Heart was the site of a massacre perpetrated by the Dakota Sioux early in the 1862 Dakota War. All but three of the Settler men in the area were killed, as were many of the women and children, while 22 people were taken captive.
The town of Sacred Heart was platted in 1878. The 1914 Hotel Sacred Heart is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Passages that mention Sacred Heart, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Renville County, Minnesota1916 · page 1265Read the page →
Read the text
A church was built and partly finished in 1880; it was located about a half mile southwest from the village of Sacred Heart. A number of years later, namely in 1891, the church was moved into the village, and it was then completely finished, and has a seating capacity of 200 people. The church was built under the pastorate of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Renville County, Minnesota1916 · page 913Read the page →
Read the text
In the summer of 1879, Ole Torbenson moved to the village of Sacred Heart and built a store facing the depot, near the alley, between lots 1 and 2, block 3. Later he turned the building around and built an addition, so that it stood on lot 1. block 3, facing the street. He continued in business for several years.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Sacred Heart, 1867 to 1965
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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