Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy - Campus

Campus

FSHA’s 41-acre campus was originally the site of the Flintridge Hotel, which was designed and built by architect Myron Hunt in 1926 at the direction of Frank Putnam Flint, a United States senator from what was then called La Canada. Flint owned the land on which the hotel was built and requested Hunt due to his expertise in Mediterranean/Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. The Flintridge Hotel included a large main building with a dining room, lounge and patio, in addition to six smaller cottages meant to house whole families. The grounds also included a pool, tennis courts and several large lawn areas.

After the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose took over the property in 1931, the hotel was converted into a school exclusively for boarding students in grades 1-12. The billiards and game room became a chapel, the hotel's beauty salon became the head administrator's office, the bridal suite became a community room for the Sisters, and the Green Room (formerly an elegant ballroom) was converted into a recreational room for students. The main dining room, with wood paneling and chandeliers, is virtually unchanged from 1927 and still used by both boarding students and the Sisters. Senator Flint originally owned many of the furnishings and decorations that remain in the original hotel building.

In the school's early days, all students were boarders and classes were taught in the hotel building; the cottages were used as dorms. Beginning in 1945, a decision was made to begin saving money to build a new structure for classrooms. In 1950, the decision was made to build a new high school building, which cost $210,000 and was completed in 1951. The Class of 1952 became the first senior class to occupy the new high school building. The building had three state-of-the-art science laboratories, a new library and spacious classrooms.

In November 1955, the Sisters voted to borrow $100,000 to build an auditorium. The academic year of 1956-57 marked the first year the student body was able to utilize this new auditorium. This new building allowed for expanded performances of plays on a stage instead of the lounge. The old elementary school building on Palmerstone Drive, formerly servants' quarters for hotel employees, was later sold as a private residence.

The area known as the Octagon, which was located between the pool and pedestrian bridge, once served as a music conservatory. A fire in 1971 damaged the building so severely that it was torn down. The Octagon now serves as a gathering spot with an expansive view of the Rose Bowl, Pasadena and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Today, the only parts of the old hotel in use for student instruction are an art studio in the Annex of the old hotel and the upper part of Cottage 4, which houses music instruction. Due to the greater needs of the school, Flintridge Sacred Heart was able to expand its science and athletics facilities in 1998. A new 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) Student Activities Center opened on campus, which houses three state-of-the-art science classrooms with labs, a gymnasium, aerobics room, exercise room, training room, multipurpose athletic field and amphitheater. With the completion of the Student Activities Center in 1998, the science laboratories in the high school building were transformed into regular classrooms. The cottages now house school services such as admissions, technology and development.

After several collisions with garbage trucks, the pedestrian bridge that crosses St. Katherine Drive to connect the main building with the cottages and high school was closed during the summer of 2010 for repairs. It reopened before the start of the 2010-2011 school year with a reinforced structure and much of its original materials intact.

The campus of Flintridge Sacred Heart is transected by the Pasadena-La Canada Flintridge border, with the Glendale border less than a mile away. The school’s street and mailing address remain in La Canada Flintridge. The area is commonly known within the FSHA community as “the Hill” – the campus sits atop the crest of the San Rafael Hills.