Marian Catholic High School - History

History

In 1949, after making a request to Samuel Stritch, Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, a priest at St. Agnes parish in Chicago Heights was given permission to purchase land and begin raising funds for the construction of a coed high school. By 1951 enough capital had been raised to hire a local architect to design the building. The Cardinal then mandated that there were to be two cooperative schools, one for women and one for men, each to be run by a religious order. The new plan called for the first school to accept coed classes until the boys school was ready, about four years after the school for women was open.

The Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois agreed to oversee and staff the new school in 1955. Ground breaking occurred on January 6, 1957, and opened in September, 1958. The school was dedicated by Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer on January 11, 1959.

In September, 1961, the first group of seniors preparing to graduate stood at 165, but the incoming freshman class was 450. The initial staff of six nuns was now at 18, and had outgrown the capacity of their convent in nearby Homewood. The Dominican Sisters also added on a new convent to the school to accommodate the growing staff. Without a male religious order to sponsor the male school, plans were eventually dropped to build the second school. Mobile classrooms were brought in to help with the overcrowding.

In 1970, the Sisters and the Archdiocese reached an agreement that would leave the sisters as the sole sponsors of the school, while the Archdiocese committed more money to build an addition. While the Archdiocese did not cover all of the needed additions, over the intervening years the school continued to raise money and make needed additions and renovations.

The address of the school and convent was 666 Ashland Avenue until the city changed the address to 700 in the autumn of 1991 following requests from the administrators.

The school received some criticism over tuition payment issues in March 2009, with an article appearing in the Chicago Tribune and various local media outlets. 100 students who were late on their fees, causing a $450,000 hole in the budget, were temporarily sent home from the school. Most quickly returned to class after working out payment plans with Marian. The Chicago Tribune was charged with bad reporting by many parents, who felt that many vital facts were not accurately represented in the initial article.