Each month we will be doing a monthly profile on a diocesan institution or person and this month we have selected Sacred Heart School, McKeesport. Be sure to follow the Archives department on Twitter: @DiopittArchives September of 2114 marks the 100th anniversary of Sacred Heart School in McKeesport. Sacred Heart Parish was established as a Croatian parish in 1906. The parish was created in response to a petition to the Bishop from a committee of Croatians living in McKeesport. On December 1, 1906, the parish purchased a church on Jenny Lind Street previously used by the First Swedish Baptist Union. By 1912, the church committee decided it was time to make plans for a parish school. On July 29, 1913, the pastor, Rev. Peter Cancarevic purchased a house next to the church to serve as a convent. The next year he invited sisters from the Adorers of the Most Precious Blood Order in Alton, Illinois to come teach at the new school. Sisters M. Victoria, M. Agnes and M. Monica arrived in time to begin classes in September of 1914. The school opened with an enrollment of 132 students taught in classrooms in the basement of the church. The school soon expanded beyond the capacity of the basement and classes had to be held in the church itself. By 1920 the parish had paid off all of its existing debt and could begin making plans for a new building to house both the church and the school. On May 28, 1920, the pastor, Rev. Matthew Kebe, purchased property on Shaw Ave. In the fall of 1922 the parish broke ground for a two story building. Construction progressed enough that the school was able to move to the first floor of the new building in time for the start of the 1924. The church moved into the completed second floor a year later. The building continued to be dual use building until the parish built a new church in 1956. After that the second floor was remodeled to provide additional classrooms. All of the teaching was done by the Adorers of the Most Precious Blood Order (later renamed the Adorers of the Blood of Christ) until the 1959-1960 school year when the school hired its first lay teacher. The first few years of the 1960’s saw an increase of attendance from 207 in the 1959-1960 year to 228 in the 1961-1962 school year. But from that point forward, the school attendance steadily declined. By the end of the 1968-1969 school year, the attendance had dropped to 108. Because of this, the parish could no longer afford an independent school and before the next school year, Sacred Heart School merged with St. Mary (German) School to form the McKeesport Central Catholic School.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 13:17:45 +0000
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