Ebb and flow of Catholic school buildings

Anwatin Middle School and Bryn Mawr Elementary sit at the western edge of Laurel Avenue in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis. Currently, they are part of the Minneapolis Public Schools. But a mosaic of St. Margaret of Scotland on the exterior of the building suggests a different history. In fact, the school building was opened in 1960 as St. Margaret’s Academy, a high school for girls run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

St. Margaret’s Academy was originally located in a pair of mansions at 1301 Linden Ave. in Minneapolis. Beginning in 1907, young ladies were prepared for life as well-educated housewives, mothers and women religious, studying music, drawing, foreign languages, history, English, religion, math and science. Although the mansions’ interiors were transformed into a space for training young women, many of the homes’ charms remained. When the sisters and approximately 420 students moved to their new building, they left behind rosewood paneling, tapestried walls, a ballroom, a mahogany staircase and tiled fireplaces. Lack of space was an ongoing issue in the older building, but the construction of Interstate 94 ultimately forced the move.

Like many Catholic schools in the 1950s, St. Margaret’s needed more space to make room for more students. In 1950, seven new Catholic elementary schools opened across the then-Archdiocese of St. Paul. New schools and additions continued, but they could not keep up with the “baby boom.” Many Catholic schools dropped kindergarten and first grade classes altogether, sending those students to neighboring public schools. Similarly, there were not enough teaching sisters and nuns. Lay teachers had to be recruited. The need for more space in Catholic high schools came a few years later. In 1958, the archdiocese contributed a total of $1.8 million to expanding and building secondary schools. DeLaSalle, Benilde, Cretin and Our Lady of Peace high schools were expanded. Archbishop Murray School and St. Margaret’s were under construction. Four other high schools were being proposed, including Hill School for Boys. Still, new schools and classrooms struggled to keep up with an influx of new students.

St. Margaret’s Academy followed the trend. When it opened in 1960 on the edge of Theodore Wirth Park, the new building featured 45 classrooms with space for 1,000 students, a chapel and a convent for 40 teaching nuns. It was designed by the same architect as nearby Benilde High School for boys.

Ultimately, this made the Benilde building somewhat familiar to the young women who became part of the joint Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in 1974. By the 1970s, the growth trend had shifted. Catholic schools were facing a steep decline in enrollment, and Benilde and St. Margaret’s student bodies together barely filled Benilde’s St. Louis Park building. St. Margaret’s Minneapolis building had become superfluous. Other schools followed a similar pattern. After Hill High School merged with Murray in 1971, its building became Mounds Park Academy. Derham Hall merged with Cretin in 1987, and Expo Magnet School moved in. As the need for urban Catholic schools has declined, many have similarly become home to charter schools and other educational institutions. Usually, the traces of their Catholic origins remain but are less obvious than St. Margaret watching over Bryn Mawr.

Luiken is a Catholic and a historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.