St. Joseph’s High School

  1892

Building History:

This four-story brick building was built in 1892 in the Romanesque Revival style. It has a gabled entrance pavillion with a compound archway. 

Lowell had a large and thriving French-Canadian population around the turn of the century. St. Joseph's Parish built a parish school (1883) located a few blocks from the St. Jean Baptiste Church in "Little Canada." Soaring enrollment caused issues with space and a new building was considered for older grades.  

Built as an extention of the St. Joseph's Elementary School, this new building on Merrimack Street was called the St. Joseph's College for Boys and was run by Marist Brothers (Little Brothers of Mary). The building had fifteen classrooms and two large halls. By 1900, there were  1100 pupils and 18 teachers. The school taught middle school as well as freshman and sophmore studies. By 1907 the high school studies were supplemented with business training. In 1910 the school was closed, but resumed in September of 1920. A junior class was added to the school in 1928, but was discontinued after a reorganization of the school in 1929. In 1930 the school closed its doors, only to re-open in 1934 with a revised curriculum. In 1966 St. Joseph's became co-educational when the girls' school was displaced due to the Northern Canal Development Project.  It was then called the St. Joseph's High School.

In 1975 the school became the St. Joseph Regional High School after St. Jean-Baptiste Church could no longer financially support the school. It had been under the direction of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa since 1966, and they continued to staff the school.

In 1989 St. Joseph High School, whom had merged with the St. Louis Academy, became part of the Greater Lowell Catholic High School. Now known as Lowell Catholic High School, it began to operate at two locations: St. Joseph's Hall on Merrimack Street and St. Louis Hall on Boisvert Street. By 1991 they combined branches at the new Keith Hall/ Keith Catholic Building, which had once been an orphanage built in 1912. 
 

Preservation and Reuse:

The Coalition for a Better Acre bought the property and plan to convert the old school into affordable housing.

Back to List of Participating Buildings