This was originally compiled by the Reverend James W. Koons in 1997 and updated in 2004 and 2012.
Submitted by Donna Brooke.

Wishing to provide a commercial and high school course for the girls of the parish,. Father Delaney built St. Catherine’s Academy in 1901. It was named in memory of Sister M. Catherine McGrath, the first Superior Sister at St. Patrick’s.

Better living quarters for the Sisters of Providence (who came to St. Patrick’s in 1891) were provided also in this building. Through the thirty-six years of its life, St. Catherine’s was a Catholic institution and in 1936, 180 girls were enrolled not only from St. Patrick’s parish but from other parishes as well.

It was with heavy hearts that the halls of the Academy were closed in December, 1938, in favor of the new co-educational Central Catholic High School (closed in 1972).