OPINION

Roy Wilhelm | More history of old St. Joseph School

Roy Wilhelm

Not long ago, as the closing of the old St. Joseph School building neared, this column traced much of its history, dating back even before the building’s opening in 1908.

But, after that column was published, I was reminded of a not-so-long-ago bit of the building’s history that is often overlooked and more often forgotten even by some who lived through it.

Through the years, the building served a variety of students, at times 11 grades with no 12th grade, at times 12 with the more conventional high school and at times other combinations of grades as portable facilities and “annex” buildings were used.

For a big part of its existence it served students in grades one through eight after the high school building was completed in 1956.

But for a handful of years in the early to mid-1950s, it was the home of St. Joseph High School.

At the time, the younger students attended classes in the first wing of what eventually became the high school building as it has been for nearly 60 years.

You see: The high school construction wasn’t completed all at once. Not even close.

The first wing of what was to become the high school building was what ultimately became the north end of the building. Ground was broken for that project on Sept. 19, 1949, and it was completed in the fall of 1950.

But the high school students didn’t move into that wing in 1950.

Rather, read this from The Fremont News-Messenger in September of that year:

“Grades six, seven and eight will use the third floor of the new high school building. Other grades (Five and below) will move into the second floor from their temporary classrooms as soon as the rooms are completed. The ground floor of the new structure will be used for assembly, drafting rooms, offices and one classroom. The high school will use the present building (the old building now being closed) until all the units of the new school are completed.”

Truth is: That took quite some time.

So, for the next six years, high school classes were held in the building constructed in 1907 and 1908 at the corner of Croghan and Wood streets, using the old church building on the northeast corner of Croghan and Clover streets as “Educational Hall.”

Educational Hall (the old church) and the old rectory next to it were torn down in 1955 and construction of the rest of the high school proceeded.

In the fall of 1956, the high school students moved to the new building and the younger students returned to the building at Croghan and Wood streets.

But even that six year delay wasn’t quite enough.

Read this from The News-Messenger of Sept. 14, 1956:

“Because of completion of the new high school building, St. Joseph’s grade and high school units originally had postponed opening from September 7 to the tentative date of September 17. However this date will not be met because of work still to be completed and the delay in arrival of some needed equipment.”

Thus the opening date was reset for Sept. 24, but even that didn’t quite work with the classes actually beginning in the new school on Sept. 27 after students were called in so that “arrangements” could be explained.

With the high school opened, the St. Joseph building continued to serve as grades one through eight facility until the consolidation of Fremont’s Catholic Schools.

Since that time, the school has been the “middle school” of the Bishop Hoffman Catholic Schools, serving grades four through eight.

Interestingly, the recent reconfiguration of the schools will place the new “Middle School Academy” in that north wing of the high school building in the area where grades six, seven and eight were assigned when they located in the new wing in 1950 and the St. Joseph building at Wood and Croghan began its short life as the high school building only.

Roy Wilhelm started a 40-year career at The News-Messenger in 1965, as a reporter. Now retired, he is writing about the history of some Sandusky County businesses.