EARLY SCHOOL HISTORY: 1885 - 1953
Taken From: “History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky: On the occasion of the centenary of the diocese, 1853-1953" by Rev. Paul E. Ryan
Brothers Of Mary
1885—St. Joseph School for Boys, Covington, 1885-1927
1925—Covington Catholic High School, Covington
St. Joseph School For Boys
In 1885, the Society of the Brothers of Mary, which had been established in this country thirty—five years previously, with a Motherhouse at Dayton, Ohio, was introduced into the Diocese of Covington by Bishop Maes. At that time, the Very Reverend Aegidius Christoph, O.S.B., Prior and Pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Covington, feeling that the larger boys of the parish would receive a more appropriate training if they had male teachers, obtained permission from Bishop Maes to engage three Brothers of Mary from the Provincial Motherhouse at Dayton, Ohio. The three Brothers arrived in Covington in August, 1885, to take charge of St. Joseph Parish Boys‘ School, Brother Joseph Miller, S.M., being designated as Principal.
The third floor of the school building on Twelfth Street (between Greenup and Garrard Streets) was remodeled to serve as their residence. On the opening day of school in the fall of 1885, the Brothers registered one hundred and sixty-three boys. The excellence of their teaching was recognized at once. Esteem for the Brothers grew rapidly. The number of pupils increased steadily. On August 5, 1907, St. Joseph Parish school acquired additional property on Greenup and Trevor Streets adjoining the school-yard. The brick building on the lot became the home of the Brothers, who took up residence there in August, 1907. For a period of forty years the Brothers were exclusively engaged in conducting the elementary and commercial Boys’ school of St. Joseph Parish.
Covington Catholic High School
In 1925, Bishop Howard requested the Brothers of Mary to open a Boys’ Central High School in the City of Covington. The Brothers agreed to undertake the new project. Monsignor Henry Tappert, Pastor of Mother of God Parish, offered the facilities of the parish school building to house the new Central High School. On August 28, 1925, Reverend Brother George Sauer, S.M., Provincial Inspector of the Brothers of Mary, came to Covington to make final arrangements with Bishop Howard for the opening of the school.
Brother Anthony Weber, S.M., Director and Principal of St. Joseph Boys’ School was appointed Principal of Covington Catholic High School, as the new school was called. With the opening of Covington Catholic High School in 1925, one room on the first floor of Mother of God Parish school was given over to the group of forty boys, who formed the nucleus of the new High School. On November 8, 1925, Bishop Howard issued directives for the new Covington Central High School stating that “the classes were to be limited to thirty-five boys; the student body was not to exceed two hundred and fifty to three hundred boys; conduct, application to study and work were to be the criteria for remaining in school.”
In 1926, the enrollment increased to eighty-four, the student body at that time being accommodated in three classrooms. During the course of that year (1926), the Bishop and faculty discussed the addition of chemistry and physics laboratories, classrooms, sports, an augmented schedule of studies — all items of interest to a new High School foundation. On July 18, 1927, the two Brothers of Mary who had continued to teach at St. Joseph school were withdrawn from the Diocese, and the Brothers from that time confined their educational work in the Diocese to the recently established and growing Covington Catholic Central High School.
On January 7, 1929, Brother Anthony Weber made application to the Department of Education, Frankfort, Kentucky, for the approval of the school by the State of Kentucky. During that year a representative of the State Department made a thorough inspection of the school, and on May 25, 1929, official notification was received that Covington Catholic High School had been accredited by the State as a First Class “A” High School. The school has continued to remain on the list of accredited Class “A” Schools of the State of Kentucky. In the same year, the school was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools"
On Sunday, May 7, 1950, a diocesan observance of the Centennial of the Brothers of Mary in the United States was held at St. Mary Cathedral, Covington, which occasion also marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Marianists in the Diocese of Covington. The Centennial observance likewise commemorated the death of the Reverend William Joseph Chaminade, Founder of the Society, whose death occurred on January 22, 1850.
With the opening of Covington Catholic High School in the fall of 1952, the increased enrollment presented an acute problem. It was evident that immediate action would have to be taken for the expansion of facilities to enable the school to accommodate the number of boys seeking admission. In May, 1952, Bishop Mulloy appointed the Pastors of the area served by the school — Covington, West Covington, Park Hills, Ludlow and Fort Mitchell — members of a Planning and Building Committee for a new Covington Catholic High School building. The proposed new High School, which is to be built on a fourteen acre tract of land on Dixie Highway, Lookout Heights, will accommodate six hundred students.
MOVE TO PARK HILLS: 1954 - 1999
A New School Campus
The tract of land purchased for the new school campus located 2-1/4 miles away from Mother of God Elementary at the border of Lookout Heights and Park Hills, and almost immediately opposite of the Sisters of Notre Dame’s provincial center at the St. Joseph Heights on Dixie Highway. The property was purchased from the estate of Peter & Frances Foltz, whose farm and farmhouse had stood on the site since 1895. Peter Foltz’s father, also named Peter, is said to have once owned most of the land in Kenton County currently occupied by from Park Hills, Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell, Lakeside Park, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, and parts of Erlanger.
The in 1952, diocese selected architect Carl C. Bankemper to design the new building for Covington Catholic, as well as a near-duplicate school building for Newport Catholic. The buildings were almost mirror images of one another, with the two gymnasiums and chapels on opposite sides of one another. Bankemper was a partner with Betz, Bankemper & Associates in Covington, and a 1935 graduate of Covington Latin School. Following the two high school projects, Bankemper went on to design numerous buildings for the Diocese of Covington, including St. Agnes Elementary, the Marydale Retreat House, St. Pius X Elementary, St. Francis Xavier Elementary, St. Pius X Seminary, St. John The Evangelist, Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary, the St. Charles Care Center, the Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home, and St. Vincent de Paul, St. Joseph (Cold Spring), & St. Catherine of Siena Churches.
The original design for the school was a 53,000 square foot, three-floor, seventeen-classroom building, with a library, school office suite and conference room, a cafeteria and dining room planned to seat 600, a school chapel, and a gymnasium designed to accommodate 2,000 for convocations and meetings. At the request of the Brothers of Mary, who had operated Covington Catholic and its predecessor, the St. Joseph Boys’ School from their inception, Covington Catholic’s new building façade featured a 16-foot high limestone statue of the Blessed Virgin, designed by Cincinnati sculptor Ernest Haswell. The total building design, estimated at a $750,000 cost, was approved by Monsignor Leo J. Streck, the diocesan superintendent of education and the chair of the pastors’ building committee and a construction bid date for the both Covington Catholic & Newport Catholic was set for September 16, 1953. A week later on September 23, the Covington Catholic general trades contract was awarded to the H.W. Miller Construction Company out of Covington, and the Newport Catholic general trades contract was awarded to the John Hemmer Construction Company out of Newport. The T.F. Schlade Company was awarded the plumbing contract for both buildings, with the HVAC contract going to Peck, Hannaford & Briggs, and the electrical contract going to Becker Electric.
In October of 1953, bulldozers began work preparing the site on Dixie Highway for the new Covington Catholic campus, and the cornerstone for the building was laid in 1954. Most Reverend William T Mulloy, Sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Covington, presided over a school dedication ceremony on Sunday, January 23, 1955, including a room-by-room blessing, a blessing of the classroom crucifixes, and a benediction ceremony in a packed gymnasium. Clergy members from numerous feeder parishes and the Marianists who comprised the majority of the school faculty were present to concelebrate the benediction service. The new school building officially opened its doors for classes on Tuesday, February 8, 1955 at a final cost of $845,439.44. Aside from private donors and group donations from charitable organizations like the Catholic War Vets and the Holy Name Society, the cost of the construction was split between the 13 feeder parishes whose elementary graduates matriculated into Covington Catholic. Those parishes included St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, St. Ann, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, Blessed Sacrament, St. Boniface, St. James, St. John, St. Joseph (Covington), St. Mary’s Cathedral, Mother of God, and St. Patrick.
In the years soon following the completion of the new school building, fundraising efforts provided a residence built behind the school to house the Marianists who operated the school at the request and oversight of the Diocese of Covington. Up to that point the Marianist faculty members lived, primarily, in a multi-unit building owned by the diocese, with few additional individuals spending time living in the Marianist residences at Purcell High School in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood.
In 1968, Covington Catholic introduced Project Team Build in response to the financial and staffing challenges that parochial schools were experiencing. The program consisted of modular scheduling, team teaching, independent study, and grading based on self-assessments, with increased participation by parents. Religious education became self-directed with an emphasis on elective courses. An "open campus" policy permitted students to leave the campus when not attending a class. The school was accredited by the Kentucky Department of Education as an experimental school and won recognition for educational innovation. However, the governing Board of Pastors objected to the open campus policy and religion curriculum. In April 1971, after failing to negotiate to agreeable terms with the diocese and the school’s 12-member board, the Society of Mary - which included the principal and 30 of the 46 faculty members at the school - resigned and the Marianists permanently withdrew from the school. Mr. Kenneth J. Gross became the first lay principal that year, and the board was reorganized to include parents and laypeople. The open campus policy was revised to only include seniors in good standing, and the policy remained throughout the majority of the 1970s.
A New School Campus
The tract of land purchased for the new school campus located 2-1/4 miles away from Mother of God Elementary at the border of Lookout Heights and Park Hills, and almost immediately opposite of the Sisters of Notre Dame’s provincial center at the St. Joseph Heights on Dixie Highway. The property was purchased from the estate of Peter & Frances Foltz, whose farm and farmhouse had stood on the site since 1895. Peter Foltz’s father, also named Peter, is said to have once owned most of the land in Kenton County currently occupied by from Park Hills, Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell, Lakeside Park, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, and parts of Erlanger.
The in 1952, diocese selected architect Carl C. Bankemper to design the new building for Covington Catholic, as well as a near-duplicate school building for Newport Catholic. The buildings were almost mirror images of one another, with the two gymnasiums and chapels on opposite sides of one another. Bankemper was a partner with Betz, Bankemper & Associates in Covington, and a 1935 graduate of Covington Latin School. Following the two high school projects, Bankemper went on to design numerous buildings for the Diocese of Covington, including St. Agnes Elementary, the Marydale Retreat House, St. Pius X Elementary, St. Francis Xavier Elementary, St. Pius X Seminary, St. John The Evangelist, Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary, the St. Charles Care Center, the Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home, and St. Vincent de Paul, St. Joseph (Cold Spring), & St. Catherine of Siena Churches.
The original design for the school was a 53,000 square foot, three-floor, seventeen-classroom building, with a library, school office suite and conference room, a cafeteria and dining room planned to seat 600, a school chapel, and a gymnasium designed to accommodate 2,000 for convocations and meetings. At the request of the Brothers of Mary, who had operated Covington Catholic and its predecessor, the St. Joseph Boys’ School from their inception, Covington Catholic’s new building façade featured a 16-foot high limestone statue of the Blessed Virgin, designed by Cincinnati sculptor Ernest Haswell. The total building design, estimated at a $750,000 cost, was approved by Monsignor Leo J. Streck, the diocesan superintendent of education and the chair of the pastors’ building committee and a construction bid date for the both Covington Catholic & Newport Catholic was set for September 16, 1953. A week later on September 23, the Covington Catholic general trades contract was awarded to the H.W. Miller Construction Company out of Covington, and the Newport Catholic general trades contract was awarded to the John Hemmer Construction Company out of Newport. The T.F. Schlade Company was awarded the plumbing contract for both buildings, with the HVAC contract going to Peck, Hannaford & Briggs, and the electrical contract going to Becker Electric.
In October of 1953, bulldozers began work preparing the site on Dixie Highway for the new Covington Catholic campus, and the cornerstone for the building was laid in 1954. Most Reverend William T Mulloy, Sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Covington, presided over a school dedication ceremony on Sunday, January 23, 1955, including a room-by-room blessing, a blessing of the classroom crucifixes, and a benediction ceremony in a packed gymnasium. Clergy members from numerous feeder parishes and the Marianists who comprised the majority of the school faculty were present to concelebrate the benediction service. The new school building officially opened its doors for classes on Tuesday, February 8, 1955 at a final cost of $845,439.44. Aside from private donors and group donations from charitable organizations like the Catholic War Vets and the Holy Name Society, the cost of the construction was split between the 13 feeder parishes whose elementary graduates matriculated into Covington Catholic. Those parishes included St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, St. Ann, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, Blessed Sacrament, St. Boniface, St. James, St. John, St. Joseph (Covington), St. Mary’s Cathedral, Mother of God, and St. Patrick.
In the years soon following the completion of the new school building, fundraising efforts provided a residence built behind the school to house the Marianists who operated the school at the request and oversight of the Diocese of Covington. Up to that point the Marianist faculty members lived, primarily, in a multi-unit building owned by the diocese, with few additional individuals spending time living in the Marianist residences at Purcell High School in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood.
In 1968, Covington Catholic introduced Project Team Build in response to the financial and staffing challenges that parochial schools were experiencing. The program consisted of modular scheduling, team teaching, independent study, and grading based on self-assessments, with increased participation by parents. Religious education became self-directed with an emphasis on elective courses. An "open campus" policy permitted students to leave the campus when not attending a class. The school was accredited by the Kentucky Department of Education as an experimental school and won recognition for educational innovation. However, the governing Board of Pastors objected to the open campus policy and religion curriculum. In April 1971, after failing to negotiate to agreeable terms with the diocese and the school’s 12-member board, the Society of Mary - which included the principal and 30 of the 46 faculty members at the school - resigned and the Marianists permanently withdrew from the school. Mr. Kenneth J. Gross became the first lay principal that year, and the board was reorganized to include parents and laypeople. The open campus policy was revised to only include seniors in good standing, and the policy remained throughout the majority of the 1970s.
A NEW ACADEMIC CENTER: 1999 - PRESENT
Building A New Academic Center
In 1999, after 44 years of the school conducting classes in Park Hills, Covington Catholic property manager and longtime faculty member George Schneider approached principal Jack Kennevan with some conceptual drawings of a new academic center for the school. Mr. Schneider, along with members of the school board, felt that a new academic center was the inevitable next step for Covington Catholic, with the decades-old infrastructure of their building reaching the end of its usable life, the technological advances in education demanding more than the building could offer, and school enrollment beginning to climb above 500 students. They had had been given approval by the Diocese in 1997 to begin planning and programming for a new building, and after nearly two years of discussion and review of plans and by the school administrators, school board, local clergy, and alumni, Mr. Kennevan and Mr. Schneider officially presented their plans to the Diocese. In late 1999, Most Reverend William Muench, the Ninth Bishop of Covington, gave approval for Covington Catholic to begin a capital campaign for their new academic center in the amount of $7,500,000 – some ten times the original budget amount of the previous school building.
Mr. Kennevan began his “Share The Spririt” capital campaign by enlisting the help of 1957 graduate Gerry Thelen, and Wayne Carlisle, co-founder of the EGC Construction Company, as the co-chairmen of the campaign. Carlisle’s EGC Construction, based out of Newport, was also designated as the design-build contractor for the project. The design of the new building included a three-story structure with an elevator, 24 standard classrooms, 4 science labs, 2 art rooms, 2 computer labs, a language lab, a graphic arts/computer drafting lab, a media room, school administration, guidance, and technology offices, 2 conference rooms a new and much larger cafeteria, a school Spirit Shop, and a beautiful Chapel suited to accommodate up to 150 students. Donations came in many forms, including large donations from Wayne Carlisle, former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, the Covington Catholic Boosters, the Kenny & Brian Williams Fund, but they also included scores of invaluable smaller donations from parents, alumni and other businesses & organizations.
Ground was broken for the construction project on Tuesday, October 29, 2002. The new building was situated behind the original Park Hills school building, and construction took place while classes were still in session inside of the existing facility. After the school year ended in May 2003, the 1955 building was razed, and the rubble was used as backfill material for the new parking lot. Due to weather delays in the construction schedule, the new building was not completed in time for the 2003-04 school year. The school was permitted partial occupancy of the building in the Fall of 2003. Until the remainder of the school was completed and approved for occupancy, they were forced to hold classes in the 13 completed classrooms on the first floor, as well as holding classes in the cafeteria, in the neighboring Church of the Nazarene, and even 1/2 mile up Dixie Highway at St. Agnes Elementary in Fort Wright. The official dedication of the new academic center took place on Sunday, December 7, 2003 following the completion of the building, and the ceremony was presided over by Most Reverend Roger Foys, the Tenth Bishop of Covington. When construction was finally completed in December of 2003, final construction costs for the new academic center totaled almost $9,500,000.