Peconic Community School purchases Sacred Heart Church's Cutchogue site for $2.85 million

A former Catholic church in Cutchogue is getting a fresh start as the permanent home of Peconic Community School.

The nonprofit school purchased the $2.85 million Sacred Heart church property on Dec. 16, according to Patricia Nicklaus, an associate broker at Howard Hanna Coach Real Estate in Port Jefferson, who represented the seller in the deal. The school had been in contract to buy the 10.2-acre Main Road site since 2022.

In addition to the 19th century church, the deal includes the former Our Lady of Mercy Regional School, rectory, carriage house and 5 acres of land. 

“It’s going to keep its historic value, but now it’s going to have a new life in education,” Nicklaus said in an interview. “There’ll be children singing in it again.”

Peconic Community School cofounder and executive director Liz Casey said having a permanent home is a “game changer” for the independent school.

“We can put down the roots, we can grow from what we started and hope to be here for 100 years,” she said in an interview.

A 'complex' transaction

The private school began renting the Cutchogue site in 2023 under a lease-to-own agreement while it secured financing and the church obtained regulatory approvals, Casey said.

Casey founded the independent school in 2012 with her sister, Kathryn Casey Quigley, and previously leased at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Aquebogue. It currently enrolls 89 students from early childhood through eighth grade, Casey said.

Nicklaus said closing was “complex” due to multiple levels of approval, including from Sacred Heart church leadership, the Diocese of Rockville Centre and state attorney general, which must approve real estate transactions involving religious corporations.

State Supreme Court filings show the church won approval to sell the property in October.

Our Lady of Mercy Regional School closed in 2018 as part of a decision by the Diocese of Rockville Centre to merge it with St. Isidore School in Riverhead. Bishop McGann-Mercy High School in Riverhead also shut down in 2018 and diocesan officials cited declining enrollment as a factor, Newsday reported at the time.

Sacred Heart Parish has merged with Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church in Mattituck, the Rev. Eric Fasano, a spokesman for the diocese, said Wednesday.

Fasano in an email said proceeds from the sale will be used to build a new parish center in Mattituck “that will serve the parish community as it continues to grow.”

Long search for a home

Peconic Community School searched for more than a decade before the Cutchogue site became available.

“The school had really hit the limit of what was possible to do as a renter,” school board of trustees chair Stephan Roussan said in an interview.

Roussan said the entire project cost $4 million, and the school raised half in fundraising and the remainder in private and community-backed loans. The school completed minor renovations, security and site improvements when it opened in Cutchogue, he said.

Now, school leaders envision transforming the rest of the campus into an “educational hub” and plan to preserve the church structures while repurposing them to suit their needs.

The Gothic-style church, carriage house and rectory date to 1878, built by immigrant farm families that settled in the area, according to Preservation Long Island.

Casey said the church could become an auditorium and performing arts space. An art studio or maker space is planned for the carriage house, and the rectory can be used as offices or additional classrooms, she said.

“Being in the heart of Cutchogue … makes us feel really a part of the community,” Casey said. “No one wants to see an empty schoolhouse, and now it’s just humming with life and joyful noises from the kids laughing and playing.”

The school plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony early this month, she said.