St. Joseph’s Academy, St. Paul

St. Joseph’s Academy traces its origins to 1851, when the first Sisters of St. Joseph opened a school for girls in a log cabin on the banks of the Mississippi. One hundred and twenty years later, the final St. Joseph’s Academy High School closed its doors. Today, its buildings on Marshall and Western Avenues are on the National Register of Historic Places and still in use.

Fifteen years after the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet arrived in Missouri from Lyons, France, four of the Sisters came to Minnesota Territory. Joseph Cretin, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of St. Paul, had asked them for help with the work facing the growing community.

The four Sisters of St. Joseph arrived by steamboat and settled on the banks of the Mississippi in November 1851. Within a week, they opened their first school in the vestry of a log chapel, the forerunner of the St. Paul Cathedral.

When the need for more space became apparent, the Sisters acquired land on what was then the outskirts of the city of St. Paul, in an area known as St. Anthony Hill (now Cathedral Hill). In 1863, the first building that became St. Joseph’s Academy was built on the corner of Marshall and Western Avenues. This three-and-a-half-story limestone building is one of the oldest in St. Paul.

Growth spurred the construction of more buildings on the property to house new programs and more classrooms. From 1863, St. Joseph’s Academy had been a boarding school, too distant for daily commutes. This ended in 1905, when the city had grown and more streetcar lines became available in St. Paul. By 1926, St. Joseph’s Academy, or SJA, as it was known to students, had become one of the early St. Paul high schools.

In the early twentieth century, the Academy’s curriculum featured a well-equipped science laboratory. As the catalog stated, there was also a “collection of specimens for botanical and geological study.” The commercial department expanded so that students could choose between working after high school and taking college preparation courses.

During this period of growth, SJA was also home (1882–1930) to Ellen Ireland, a remarkable high achiever and one of the high school’s first graduates. Ireland entered the St. Joseph’s convent and became Mother Seraphine, leader of the sisters in the St. Paul Province. Except for temporary assignments at other convents, SJA was her lifelong home. She joined her brother, Archbishop John Ireland, in helping to expand SJA. Together, they prepared the way for the founding of the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) in 1905.

In 1901, graduates of SJA formed an alumnae association and began their newsletter, Chapter Chats. Although the newsletter was not sent for a number of years, the tradition was reinstated in 1931. In the early twenty-first century the SJA Alumnae Association continues to send Chapter Chats to thousands of members.

SJA was home to many outstanding teachers over the years. Several of the Sisters also contributed their talents to the wider community. Among them was Sister Mary Aloysius Sherin, a celebrated math and science teacher from 1935 to 1955.

In 1938 Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson became director of the SJA Glee Club. The group was in demand for many community-wide events in St. Paul. After retirement, Sister Ann Thomasine conducted oral histories of a number of Sisters. The histories are still available in the archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Sister Irmina Kelehan, an English teacher at SJA, responded in1956 to a request from the Japanese government to open a school in Tsu, Japan. She joined several other Sisters of St. Joseph from around the U.S. and opened a school for girls. They named it St. Joseph’s Academy.

In 1971, enrollment declined while the costs of maintaining older buildings kept rising. The Sisters decided it was time to close St. Joseph’s Academy and turn to other ministries. On June 5, 1975, the buildings of the Academy were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property and buildings were sold to Christ’s Household of Faith.