The video shows an excavator knocking down my grade school, Ss. Peter and Paul in Norwood, just a few weeks ago. Sad, sad, sad. Four Murray boys went through there in the 20s and 30s, and two more in the 60s and 70s. The frieze over the arches on the front porch read “Pro Deo et Patria,” and that was what we were taught. The view here is from the back, on the paved playground, looking up the hill, roughly to the east.
I can’t get too nostalgic about the place–but I do still dream about running through the halls and down the stairs every once in a while. When I started there in 1965 there were about 250 kids. The school itself after the usual mergers and closings moved out to St. John in Deer Park, and since moved to Sacred Heart in Reading. The grand tour of blue collar suburbs. I wonder where all the Catholics went.
The building to the left of the school in the video is the former Mt. St. Mary’s seminary. From that side of the seminary, Cardinal Pacelli spoke to the interested in fall 1936. My dad was there.
The school building was plain brown brick, with some Italian Renaissance ornamentation. I think it deserved a better end, but a school without students can’t be a school.
22 January 2013 at 7:30 pm
I’d always wondered about the history of that building. It seemed like it was unoccupied for a long time. Thanks for sharing your story.
22 January 2013 at 7:55 pm
That’s sad, sad, sad. Sigh.
22 January 2013 at 10:04 pm
Oh wow. An elderly parishioner at my church told the story of being a student there and the sister said, “Come, children look out the window, there is the next Pope.” It was Cardinal Pacelli going into the seminary across the street.