There are many sacred spaces in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Annie Huey, Ph.D., wants to tell you all about them. She is the founder of Sacred Heritage Tours and about twice a month she conducts tours at various churches, chapels and other holy sites.

“I love doing the research and finding out all the mysteries and history of the people. I think that’s really fun,” said Huey.

She’s been leading these tours since January 2025. Huey has her bachelor’s degree in religious studies, plus a master’s and Ph.D. in theology. In high school, she thought she’d become a high school religion teacher. And she did for a while, teaching at St. Ursula Academy. While studying for her master’s at Xavier, a course sparked an interest in American Catholic History. While studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Dayton, she came up with the idea for the tours.

“I just really fell in love with old churches, but also being able to use materials within the church to tell stories,” she explained. “I’m really drawn to Catholic devotional materials, and the church has big Catholic devotional materials, stained glass windows, stations of the cross, statues. I’m able to use those as touchpoints to tell bigger stories.”

On a recent Saturday morning, Huey told the story of St. Martin of Tours in Cheviot. Judy and John Kirsch came from Dayton to hear it. Judy’s father grew up in the parish, and she’d been to Mass there as a child, but the couple didn’t know its history.

“There’s obviously so much more to them than just beautiful spaces,” said Judy of the church tours. “If people could just appreciate the history and then the beauty, just what went into this. It’s not just a building.”

The couple was impressed with the efforts and the faith of the people, mostly farmers, who founded the parish in 1911.

“We had no idea that this is the third church. They started very small and got a little bit bigger. And then this,” said John gesturing to the Lombard Romanesque-style church.

This tour gave guests the last chance to see the stunning stained glass windows in the church for a couple of years. The parish raised almost $1.4 million to have them restored. Some have now been removed and are at a studio in Minnesota where the work is taking place.

Huey has tours of other sacred spaces scheduled through the end of the year. She also gives private tours and presentations to community groups and others.  Tickets can be purchased on her website, sacredheritagetours.com. Many  who attend are repeat customers.

“The first one we went to was St. Lawrence,” said Jill Thompson, who is not Catholic and drove from West Chester to Cheviot. “My husband grew up in Price Hill, so we are very connected to that area. We’ve been in the church 100 times, but we wanted to learn about it. We liked it so much. This is the third one we’ve done.”

The tours are open to everyone, regardless of faith. Guests leave after two-hours with a richer understanding of the sacred spaces in our midst and the sacrifices and determination it took to build them.