Bellarmine College Preparatory - History

History

Bellarmine has its origin in 1851 when Father John Nobili, S.J. founded Santa Clara College for elementary, secondary and college age students. This structure continued until 1903 when the elementary grades were discontinued.

In 1912 Santa Clara College became Santa Clara University and the high school division became Santa Clara Prep. For five years Santa Clara and the College of the Pacific—as it was known then—deliberated over the sale of the Emory and Elm property behind the historic College Park train station (immortalized in Jack Kerouac and Jack London's works) . Finally in November 1925 the decision was made to purchase the campus for $77,500 and the high school moved from the Santa Clara campus to its new location. The change also saw a change in school colors from the red and white of Santa Clara to blue and white, to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In 1926 the school opened its doors with only 200 registered students, and the name was changed to Bellarmine at the prompting of Archbishop of San Francisco Edward Joseph Hanna. He suggested, while visiting the school in its early days, that the school honor Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit of the sixteenth century, who had recently been canonized a saint and declared a Doctor of the Church. The Jesuits accepted his suggestion and the name Bellarmine became synonymous with the school at Emory and Elm Streets.

For almost 20 years the number of students remained at 200 until the school needed to increase its student population and improve its campus buildings. Fr. Gerald Sugrue, S.J. was given this task and began the process which would lead the school into the post-war era. The old College of the Pacific buildings were replaced by new classroom buildings, the Schott Academic Center, a library, St. Robert's Jesuit Residence Hall, Vincent O'Donnell Residence Hall, Samuel L. Liccardo Center, Wayne Valley Memorial Gymnasium, James A. Carney Science Center, the Leontyne Chapel and Matthewson Hall. Bellarmine was a boarding school until the 1984-1985 academic year, when the O'Donnell dormitory was converted to classroom and administrative functions. From an enrollment of 200 Bellarmine has grown to more than 1,500 students from all parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, Bellarmine celebrated 150 years of educating young men in the Jesuit tradition. The latest addition to Bellarmine's campus is the Sobrato Center for the Humanities and the Arts, an amazing structure that includes numerous classrooms and a state-of-the-art theater. In 2010, the Schott Academic Center was demolished, and at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year, Bellarmine dedicated its new Lorry I. Lokey Center, housing math, religious studies, and social science courses. Currently, construction is under way for a new student life center to house the dean's offices, student lounges, and counselor's offices, as well as an auxiliary gymnasium with new weight room facilities. Plans for a newly renovated baseball field were announced in 2012.