exploding as people were emigrating to Detroit to service the expanding automobile industry. Bishop Gallagher, who became bishop of the Diocese of Detroit in July 1918, realized he could not rely on priests borrowed from other dioceses, nor priests imported from Europe, to staff his parishes and meet the spiritual needs of the faithful under his care. He needed a diocesan seminary to train his own "homegrown" priests.
This first incarnation of Sacred Heart Seminary offered the first two years of high school. Junior and senior classes were added the next two years, and the first class graduated in 1922. College-level classes were added in the fall.
=== New Building ===
Enrollment soon outstripped the capacity of the two cramped houses on Martin Place and later an apartment building on nearby Alexandrine Avenue. After a successful fundraising campaign in 1920–1921, Bishop Gallagher purchased twenty-four acres of farmland in February 1923 and began construction of a new facility at the corner of Chicago Boulevard …
