File:Sacred Heart shrine at night, Sacred Heart RC Church, Lancaster, New York - 20230202.jpg

English: A nighttime view of the grotto shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus located adjacent to the Roman Catholic church of the same name in Lancaster, New York, as seen in February 2023. Along with a similar but smaller shrine to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, this is the parish's main claim to fame and was dedicated by Buffalo Diocese bishop William Turner in May 1927, only ten years after its founding. The shrines were not only the brainchild but also the work of Sacred Heart's founding pastor, Rev. Edward L. Ott, a skilled engineer and stonemason who, along with the parishioners, performed most of the construction themselves due to the fledgling parish's inability to afford to hire professionals. Designed in a freewheeling Spanish Revival style with a profusion of semicircular arches and a light-on-its-feet massing courtesy of multitudinous towers and pinnacles, the shrine is composed of smooth-textured fieldstones whose varying shapes and sizes symbolize the coming together of all different people and nations into a united church. The Holy Trinity is also symbolically represented by the placement of smaller niches, dedicated respectively to Saint Theresa of Lisieux and Saint Joseph, flanking the large central altar whose marble crucifix was personally blessed by Pope St. Pius X, as well as by the clustering of arches into groups of three wherever possible. At right is seen a 33-step stairway - one for each year of Christ's life - facing the statue of Christ the King that crowns the very top of the structure. Additional statuary, none of which is visible in this photo, was added during subsequent restorations in 1991 and 2003-05. The shrine is used as both a venue for private visits and devotions as well as for well-attended outdoor Masses during the summer months.