Parish History: 2004 Centennial Edition
Blessed Sacrament Parish History Book
A New Home
Hollywood's surging economy meant that real estates values were growing as fast as the population. After getting approval from Bishop John J. Cantwell, Father Stack bought a large tract of land on Sunset Boulevard in February 1921 for $75,000. It was a lot of money but a year later the Hollywood property, which had been bought for a few thousand dollars in 1904, was sold for $300,000.
Ground was broken for the new school on January 2, 1923 and was designed by Thomas Franklin Power, a prominent and prolific Los Angeles architect. While Power designed many office buildings and homes in Los Angeles, he was best known for his work with the diocese which included the planning, design and construction of the Playa del Rey campus of Loyola Marymount University. He designed the Blessed Sacrament School in an Italian Renaissance style with twelve main classrooms along with five smaller ones that could be used for expansion. There was also a large auditorium that was intended to serve as both a gathering place for students as well as a community hall for social events.
The new, improved school opened in September 1923 with an enrollment of 370 students and was again staffed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters. With the children settled in, preparations began for the construction of the new church. The old brown church on Hollywood was dismantled and parts of it were used for a new church being built on Fairfax Avenue. Thomas Power prepared drawings for the new Blessed Sacrament church, which was designed in the same style as the school and would comfortably hold over 1,000 people. Construction was to begin in the fall of 1924 but Father John J. McHugh, who had replaced Rev. Stack, wanted the new rectory built first and commissioned Power draw up those plans. During that construction, the priests lived in their old residence, which had been moved to the Sunset Boulevard plot. It took until October 1926 to finish the building but when completed the rectory was a show place, complete with landscaped gardens, ornamental fences - and a tennis court.
With the old church razed and no construction in sight for a new one to replace it, the school auditorium was outfitted to serve as the temporary church and offered seven masses a week. To accommodate the needs of the services, the stage floor in the auditorium was lowered and dressed as a sanctuary to hold the altar that had been brought in. Although the auditorium was meant to be a temporary place of worship, it would end up being the functional church for almost seven years.
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