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1910
Cardinal Gibbons, asks Father Thomas Gibbons Smyth, pastor of St. Ann's Parish, Tenley Circle, to form a mission parish in nearby Chevy Chase.

April 3, 1910
Mass is celebrated for the first time in the Chevy Chase Library in the Chevy Chase mission of St. Ann's Parish, Tenley Circle.

July 2, 1911
First parish church is completed and dedicated by Archbishop Diomede Falconio, O.F.M., Apostolic Delegate to the United States. This date marks the formal beginning of Blessed Sacrament Parish. Smyth continues as pastor of both St. Ann's and Blessed Sacrament.

1911
Seven baptisms and one marriage recorded in that first year.

c. 1911-1920
Service organizations such as the Sanctuary Guild, Sodality, Holy Name Society and the St. Vincent DePaul Society, and the parish choir are formed in the earliest days of the parish.

August 20, 1914
Pope Pius X dies. On September 3, the conclave elected Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, a long-time papal diplomat and Archbishop of Bologna, who took the name Pope Benedict XV.

April 6, 1917
The United States enters World War I, bringing a surge in population to the capital city and its suburbs including Chevy Chase and Blessed Sacrament parish.

c. 1918-1920
Father Smyth and parishioners recognize the need to separate from St. Ann's as both parishes are growing too large for one pastor. They take the first steps: raising the funds to build a rectory.

April 24, 1920
Father Smyth takes up residence in a newly completed rectory at Blessed Sacrament, becoming pastor of Blessed Sacrament only, marking the formal separation of Blessed Sacrament from St. Ann's.

BUILDING AND GROWTH: 1921-1952
In the year 1920 when Blessed Sacrament was formally separated from St. Ann’s, the country was in the first years of “Roaring Twenties” the decade of prosperity that came in the aftermath of World War I. Warren G. Harding was just beginning his soon-to-be scandal plagued administration after a campaign headed by the slogan “return to normalcy.” Pope Benedict XV was nearing the end of his relatively short (seven years and five months) pontificate, much of which he devoted to finding peace among warring nations, in society, and within the Church.


March 24, 1921
James Cardinal Gibbons, the archbishop of Baltimore who directed the start of the parish, and arguably one of the most influential prelates in the history of the American Church, dies at his residence in Baltimore.

November 30, 1921
Michael Joseph Curley, the bishop of St. Augustine, FL, arrives in Baltimore as Gibbon’s successor. A native of Ireland, Curley was only 34 when made bishop of St. Augustine where one of his notable achievements was a fight against segregation in Catholic schools.

January, 1922
Pope Benedict XV dies of pneumonia. The conclave elects Achille Ratti, archbishop of Milan, who takes the name Pius XI. Pius worked to make the Church influential in the world, writing encyclicals on marriage and labor, for example, and made great efforts at combating anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.

c. 1922-1925
Continued growth of the parish necessitated planning for a permanent church and school. With the approval of Archbishop Curley, the church was to be the first project and fundraising began. At the end of 1923, with $55,000 raised, definite planning begins for the church.

September 13, 1923
Blessed Sacrament school opens in temporary quarters, with 53 students, taught by three Sisters of the Holy Cross. Enrollment increased to 113 by the end of the year.

November 1, 1925
Cornerstone of Blessed Sacrament Church is laid by Bishop Thomas Shahan, rector of the Catholic University of America.

November 6, 1927
Blessed Sacrament Church is dedicated by Archbishop Curley. The church is designed by Maginiss & Walsh of Boston, architects of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, and several buildings at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.

August, 1929
Permanent school building is completed (at a cost of roughly $200,000) with the convent following four years later. The school enrollment is 240 students when the building opens in 1929.

1930s
Events such as the annual May procession and Corpus Christi processions are established. The school produces an annual show, involving every student.

March 4, 1933
Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as thirty-second President of the United States. Roosevelt’s depression-fighting policies attracted a great number of people to the capital with the result that Blessed Sacrament’s population more than doubled in the decade of the 1930s.

1935
The Sanctuary Society and the Sodality merge to form the Sanctuary Sodality, which continues down through today. Operating in small groups, called units, this group serves the dual purpose of enriching members’ spiritual lives as well as being of service, both in the parish and in the broader community.