Most people who have ever visited Cullman will have taken note of the beautiful twin church spires atop Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Cullman’s historic downtown area.

These towers, topped with crosses that glitter in the sun, have helped many a visitor get their bearings as they make their way around the city.

Just next door to the beautiful rock church is Sacred Heart School, which houses grades K-8.

The school came to be built because of the influx of German Catholics who migrated here after learning of the fertile grounds near the small city named after one of their own countrymen.

On December 14, 1878, a group of dedicated nuns traveled from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in order to help start the school. Cullman was only four years old at the time.

According to material provided by the Cullman County Museum and compiled by N.P. Bartlett, this was the first, and for many years, the only school in Cullman.

By January, 1879, there were one hundred students enrolled in the new school. One year later, the roll numbered 150 students. The school was open to anyone who chose to attend, no matter what their religious affiliation.

Museum records record that by the next year, 1880, enrollment had reached 180.

Notre Dame Sisters staffed the school, which was first named Mary Help School. After serving the school and community in the start-up, the Sisters requested to return to Milwaukee.

At that time, Abbot Benedict and the monks at St. Bernard Monastery began searching for a community in which to place the school. In September, 1878, a group of five Benedictine Sisters from San Antonio, Florida, were brought in to staff the school, which they did from 1898 until June 1899.

When the Mary Help Community became established as an independent Mother House, requests for admission started coming in. From that time the community of sisters began to grow and thrive.

The Mary Help community held charge of the Parochial School in Cullman until the summer of 1902, at which time eight Benedictine Sisters from St. Walburga Convent, in Covington, Kentucky, joined the organization. At that point the name was changed to Sacred Heart School.

The original wooden frame church, as well as the first two-story wooden school building have since been replaced by those exquisite stone structures you see today.

In 1947 the new school was started. Two years later, the first day of school was recorded as December 2, 1949.

The new school, which is what you see today, is built of massive sandstone quarried three miles away on the farm of one of the parishioners of that era, Matthew Laux. Both the church and school match in architectural style and materials used.

Sacred Heart School received the State Accreditation on January, 22, 1973. It has the distinction of being the first church school in Alabama to become accredited.

Two years later it received the accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

History has recorded many changes here, but the primary purpose of the school continues to be one of providing an instructional program in an atmosphere of Catholic Christian love and guidance.

Ernest Hauk was a student at Sacred Heart School in grades 1-8. He went on to become its principal after retiring from the public school system, a position which he continues to hold today. He has been at Sacred Heart almost all of his life, and his love for the school is clearly obvious.

Hauk estimates that in it’s 136-year history, approximately 20,000 students have passed through the doors of Sacred Heart with a solid foundation for the next phase in their educations.

“We are able to go above and beyond what the state mandates for public schools,” Hauk explained. “We follow the state guidelines set out by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, but we also try to insert a biblical lesson or a Christian message or topic in all of our classes.”

Many of the teachers at Sacred Heart have remarked to others that teaching here is like it used to be when teachers had more voice in what they wanted to teach, and how to go about that.

“I think that we instill wonderful sense of strong core values in our children,” said Hauk. “I see children leaving here with the Christian values that we all claim to cherish. We can’t guarantee a life of greatness, but we plant an awful lot of great seeds and we help to keep them watered as long as possible,” he said.

Many adults have approached Hauk over the years to tell him that Sacred Heart School has made them who they are today, solid, constructive members of the community.

One such student, Michael Waters received a Rhodes Scholarship, an attorney who once had legal affiliations in Mobile and Montgomery, and is now practicing law in Birmingham.

As for himself, Hauk has a strong desire to serve the community. “I have a feeling of joy in providing services for the community as a whole, In part, that’s why I began teaching, so that I could give back,” he said.

Other teachers were also students here. Helen Lewis is the volunteer math sponsor who began the math team because the school meant so much to her.

“People who went to school here give us countless hours of payback,” Hauk remarked. “Even if they don’t have children in the school, and some are not even members of Sacred Heart parish, but they just love and value this place and want to give back.”

Sacred Heart School now includes Pre-K through grade six.