Central Catholic Marianist High School

Central Catholic High School is a Catholic, all-male, non-boarding college preparatory school located in the River North District of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio. History The school began as St. Mary's Institute on March 25, 1852 in rented rooms above a blacksmith's shop on Military Plaza. The original faculty consisted of Brother Anthony Edel (Founder, First Superior, and First Principal) from Ohio, three Marianist Brothers from Bordeaux, France (Nicholas Koenig, Jean-Baptiste Laignounse, and Xavier Mauclerc), and Timothy O'Neil, a layman from San Antonio. The school moved to a new two-story building at 112 College Street on March 1, 1853. In 1891, the school was renamed St. Mary's College, reflecting its expansion to include boarders and primary and middle school grades. In 1923, the school added boarding students from St. Louis College and was renamed St. Mary's Academy. The site is now a hotel entryway, recognized by Texas Historical Marker #3819 as the location of Old St. Mary's College, or "The Old Academy." In 1932, the school relocated to the current three-story art deco brick building on at 1403 N. St. Mary's Street and was renamed once more to Central Catholic School. Classrooms were added to the unfinished third floor in the late 1940s. By 1950 attendance grew to 740, including its first black student in 1951. The third floor was not occupied until 1953. Grade school classes were dropped in 1955. A Dr Pepper bottling plant occupied the northeast corner of the site until 1956. By the end of the 1950s the school added its first lay teacher to its staff, to be evenly split between Marianist brothers and lay people within ten years.