The story of St. Rita’s Academy—a convent and parochial school for Black girls—begins decades before the academy’s founding in 1912.
In the late 19th century, the pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish, Rev. Ignatius Panken, faced a conundrum. The parish—founded in 1873 at the intersection of 14th and Gay streets to serve Black Catholics—needed trained teachers to take over its school for African American children.
To solve this dilemma, Panken sent an invitation to an experienced sisterhood in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1880. The Oblate Sisters of Providence, founded in 1828, was considered the first permanent and successful Roman Catholic sisterhood for women of African descent.
After some consideration, the sisters accepted Panken’s invitation, sending Mother Louise Noel and three other sisters to St. Louis to take over the school and help establish the sisterhood’s St. Louis chapter. The sisters helped transform the school from a primary school in the church’s basement into a day and boarding school at its own building at 1411 Morgan Street. They also established the St. Francis Orphan Asylum in 1888, which was located on Page Avenue before it moved to Normandy, Missouri.
From its inception in 1912, St. Rita’s Academy aimed to prepare African American girls for the challenges of the time.
Conflict soon arose between the sisters and the parish’s new pastor, Rev. John McGuire, perhaps in part due to the new changes the parish was undergoing from within and without. When the parish moved to 2721 Pine Boulevard in 1912, the school was temporarily closed, and the sisters were released from their duties to the parish.
No longer responsible for the parish’s school, the sisters were now free to pursue their own interests. They decided to open their own school, St. Rita’s Academy, also known as St. Rita’s Convent for Colored Nuns and Students. The academy first opened as a boarding school for young African American girls in rented rooms at 3009 Pine Street in September 1912. The next year, the sisters bought a house at 3128 Laclede Avenue. The academy soon ran out of space, and in 1921 the sisters purchased a property at their third and final location, 4650 South Broadway.
The transition was rough and risky. The academy’s new home was in a white residential neighborhood, where the sisters were met with racist hostility. When the other South Broadway property owners learned about the move, they formed a committee to protest the academy’s new location and called upon Building Commissioner McKelvey and Archbishop John J. Glennon to halt the move, fearing that the presence of African Americans in their neighborhood would damage the neighborhood’s reputation and depreciate the value of their properties.
In an August 1921 interview in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, one of the residents claimed that the committee would try to remove the academy legally and accused the sisters of obtaining their permit to renovate their new residence under false pretenses. During the renovation, a night watchman patrolling the school scared off a trespasser, and the Oblate Sisters asked for police protection. In the end, the sisters won, and they remained on South Broadway for over 30 years.
From its inception in 1912, St. Rita’s Academy aimed to prepare African American girls for the challenges of the time. Starting off as a boarding school, the sisters expanded from elementary to junior high and high school educational modules by the 1930s. They taught a variety of courses, including English, Latin, Greek, modern languages, algebra, geometry, history, civics, shorthand, typewriting, grammar, biology, chemistry, religion, music, painting, drawing, and needlework. Supported by St. Rita’s League and St. Rita’s Aid Society, the academy remained active into the 1940s.
Unfortunately, the academy began losing pupils in the late 1940s and closed its doors around 1950. The sisters gained permission to open a home for working girls and women and a retreat center, but the establishment was largely unsuccessful and closed in 1954. In the fall of 1958, the sisters sold the house to the Missionary Fathers of Our Lady of La Salette. The house burned down in 1969.
The Missouri Historical Society’s “Seeing 1940s St. Louis” Sievers Studio Collection Project is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-30-18- 0009-18. This article originally appeared on the Missouri Historical Society’s blog, historyhappenshere.org.
