Ventura County Landmark No. 102: Sacred Heart Mission Church

This white clapboard country church was constructed in 1910 at the northwest corner of Telephone Road and Saticoy Avenue in Saticoy as Arnold’s General Store and Post Office. In 1915, farmer John P. Thille and other community leaders had the building moved to the northwest side of Violeta Street between Wells Road and Los Angeles Avenue and converted it to a chapel, named Sacred Heart, a parish of Mission of St. Sebastian in Santa Paula. The building fell out of use when the congregation relocated to a new building on Henderson Road in 1968. It was moved to its final location along Darling Road in 1987.

The church, with its picturesque agricultural surroundings and the Topatopa Mountains in the distance, was used as a filming location. It was featured in a number of commercials, music videos, and feature films, including a “Kodak moment” commercial and the 1996 film, The Rock (Griggs, 2005). In August 2005, the church burned down under suspicious circumstances; the Ventura Fire Department was unable to determine the cause of the fire (Griggs, 2005).