A bit of history...

 

The First Catholic School in Brookfield, MO

 

"The first Catholic school in Brookfield was opened by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet of St. Louis in 1871, during Fr. Brogan's pastorate.  Although the legal title of the school was the Academy of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet it was popularly known as St. Mary's Seminary for Small Boys.  Originally a private elementary boarding school for boys in grades one through eight, it became coeducational in 1881.  After it became coeducational there continued to be provisions for boys to board there, but none for girls.

 

The school was located in the 1100 block of Hansen Avenue and consisted of two buildings.  Each building was two stories tall, the second story of each being connected by an enclosed skywalk which passed over a road.  One building contained classrooms on the first floor with quarters for the sisters upstairs.  The other building was a dormitory for the boys who boarded there.  For most of its existence the school was staffed by four sisters although sometimes there were as many as seven.  Daily, a man named Grant would bring the sisters into town in a horse-drawn carriage so they could attend Mass.  Grant was also the handyman for the school, being in charge of the upkeep of the school's premises, which included a dairy, garden, orchard and burial ground for two nuns who died while teaching here.

 

There were times in the late 1800's when the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet staffed two Catholic schools in Brookfield, for in addition to the seminary the Sisters also taught at the parish school which had been erected on West John Street in 1879 during the first year of Father Tormey's tenure.  For part of the time the Sisters taught at the parish school, they owned dwellings on four adjacent lots on the west side of North Caldwell Street beginning at the corner of West John Street.  The Sisters lived in some of these dwellings and rented out the others for income."  ~ from The Immaculate Conception Church parish book (Brookfield, MO 1993-1994) pp. 32-35.

 

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