Choosing a Catholic High School

The Test for Admission to Catholic High Schools is accepting applicants now.  Parents are urged to look at this information site (link here)  and read each of the links in the left-hand column.  You may have to print out some of the forms and directions. The list of schools is posted sideways on the PDF, so printing those pages would help you to read the information. It would appear that the thirteen Catholic high schools of The Bronx offer 2,295 places for incoming freshmen.
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Please also note the dates of the Open House visitations and the Information Fairs.
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The cost of the test is $63.
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For students and parents intent on Catholic high school admission, the important point is to GET MOVING, as instructed above.
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The following note is of less importance. Because of my interest in Catholic education in the metropolitan area,  I list the number of seats available to freshmen in twelve counties:
The Bronx leads with 2,295 openings.
Queens, with 2,140 openings.
Manhattan, with 1.249 openings.
Staten Island, with 1,325.
Brooklyn, with 1,210 openings.
Westchester, with 1,150 openings.
Dutchess, with 190 openings.
Orange, with 110 openings.
Rockland, with 160 openings,
Ulster, with 60 openings.
Putnam and Sullivan, with no Catholic high schools.

Catholic New York special section 1.19.2017

Available on the internet is the special Catholic Schools Week section published 1.19.2017. A link is HERE.
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The sixteen pages include high schools and elementary schools in the seven counties of the Archdiocese of New York. However, my focus is on the elementary schools of The Bronx. The sole paid advertising for Bronx elementary grades is for Mount St. Michael Academy, grades 6-12. Cardinal Hayes HS and Fordham Prep also placed ads.
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One hundred forty elementary schools will have Touring Tuesday on January 31, 2017, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.  Of the forty-four Catholic elementary schools in The Bronx, eighteen are listed with a schedule for Open House. The special section lists school names, dates and times, but not phone numbers or addresses.  
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For Bronxites living near Manhattan or Westchester, please do not overlook nearby schools, such as Good Shepherd School, one block from the Bx12 bus terminal in Inwood.
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More information may be found at http://buildboldfutures.org/
Scroll down on that home page to Coming Events. Or use the information links at the top of the home page.
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The New York Daily News on 1.26.2017 published an Advertising Supplement for Catholic Schools.  In several aspects, this supplement gives better coverage to Bronx Catholic elementary schools than I saw in Catholic New York (above).  The link to the Daily News supplement for Catholic schools is HERE. Don't give up when you see ads for a few New Jersey schools. Continue scrolling through the pages and you will find more Bronx schools.

Choosing a Catholic High School

The Test for Admission to Catholic High Schools is accepting applicants now.  Parents are urged to look at this information site (link here)  and read each of the links in the left-hand column.  You may have to print out some of the forms and directions. The list of schools is posted sideways on the PDF, so printing those pages would help you to read the information. It would appear that the thirteen Catholic high schools of The Bronx offer 2,415 places for incoming freshmen.
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Please also note the dates of the Open House visitations and the Information Fairs.
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The cost of the test is $63.
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You will also find an abundance of information in the 2016 Catholic High School Guide linked HERE.
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For students and parents intent on Catholic high school admission, the important point is to GET MOVING, as instructed above.
---
The following note is of less importance. Because of my interest in Catholic education in the metropolitan area,  I list the number of seats available to freshmen in twelve counties:
The Bronx leads with 2,415 openings.
Queens, with 2,160 openings.
Manhattan, with 1.314 openings.
Staten Island, with 1,375.
Brooklyn, with 1,300 openings.
Westchester, with 1,179 openings.
Dutchess, with 190 openings.
Orange, with 110 openings.
Rockland, with 110 openings,
Ulster, with 60 openings.
Putnam and Sullivan, with no Catholic high schools.

New York Daily News Back to School Section

About August 22, 2016, the New York Daily News included a special advertising section for Back to School vendors.  Interspersed are laudatory descriptions of several Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens Catholic elementary and high schools.
Warning! Links to Daily News sections often go stale and become useless.
If you are quick, please try
http://www.nydailynews.com/services/back-to-school

Msgr. Scanlan High School

Monsignor Scanlan High School, a Catholic high school for girls and boys, enrolling about 400 students, is located at 415 Hutchinson River Parkway, Bronx NY 10465, telephone 718-430-0100. Its informative website is linked here. Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

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The school has far-reaching and frequent bus service, with stops of the Q-44 (from Jamaica and Flushing to the school, continuing to Parkchester and West Farms Square) and the Q-50 (from Flushing to the school, continuing to Pelham Bay and Co-Op City).

Preston High School

Preston High School is a Catholic girls' high school on the picturesque shoreline between the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and the Throg's Neck Bridge, at 2780 Schurz Avenue, Bronx NY 10468.  Its telephone number is 718-863-9134, and its website is linked here.  In the above photo, at left is the mansion once the residence of Collis Huntington.  

In New York City, several MTA bus routes have branches that serve high schools.  This is a branch of the crosstown Tremont Avenue bus.

Academy of Mt. St. Ursula

The Academy of Mount St. Ursula is the newer building above.  To the left, and joined to it is the older building, the former convent, with several educational uses. Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

See page 357 for the arrival of the Ursulines in The Bronx in 1855. They established an academy on Westchester Avenue, east of Eagle Avenue, Morrisania. In 1892, they moved the academy and convent to Mount St. Ursula in Bedford Park, between Marion and Valentine Avenues, where the staff of the academy in 2013 continues to educate girls of high school age. The mailing address and school entrance is 330 Bedford Park Boulevard, NY 10458.
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The website of the Academy of Mount St. Ursula is here. The international website of the Ursulines is here.
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South of the high school, Serviam Heights is constructing more senior apartments, with some facilities apparently also within the 1892 building. Please see this article in the Norwood News dated 1.26.2016.

All Hallows High School

At the north end of Joyce Kilmer Park, on the west side of the Grand Concourse, is All Hallows High School.  For full information about the school, please visit the underlined link.  

The address of All Hallows High School is 111 East 164th Street, Bronx NY 10452, telephone 718-293-4545.  The above view shows the intersection of Walton Avenue and 164th Street.  The Grand Concourse and buses Bx1 and Bx2 are one short block to the right.
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The name All Hallows is a synonym for All Saints, the name of the school prior to 1930.
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Please note that this school is a private Catholic high school, that is, not owned by the Archdiocese of New York.  Throughout its history, the Irish Christian Brothers, now known as the Congregation of Christian Brothers, have sponsored this school, Rice High School, and Iona College, New Rochelle. 
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A different congregation, the De La Salle Christian Brothers, sponsors Manhattan College at West 242nd Street, Bronx.

Cardinal Hayes High School, Grand Concourse

The address of Cardinal Hayes High School is 650 Grand Concourse (near East 153rd St), Bronx NY 10451, telephone 718-292-6100. The school's extensive and informative website is linked here.  When I took the above photos in October, 2011, scaffolding hid the facade.  For better photographs, please visit the website.
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See page 513 for the opening of Cardinal Hayes (archdiocesan) High School on the Grand Concourse in 1941. The building with art-deco features was designed by the firm of Otto Reinhold Eggers (1882-1964) and Daniel Paul Higgens (1886-1953), linked here.
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The school is located three blocks north of the important subway station of 149th Street and Grand Concourse of subway routes 2, 4, and 5.  Bus routes Bx1 and Bx2 also serve Cardinal Hayes High School.



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St Helena, Olmstead Ave., Parkchester

Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

See page 487 for the beginnings of St Helena parish, Parkchester in 1940. The church was built in 1941 on Olmstead Avenue, just north of Westchester Avenue. Whereas St. Raymond's church is near the northeast corner of Parkchester, St Helena's is at the southeast corner. The parish website is linked here. The rectory address is 1315 Olmstead Ave., Bronx NY 10462, telephone 718-892-3232. The stained glass windows of the church are pictured and described on the parish website.
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Since 2014, Piarist Fathers staff the church.

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On May 5, 2020, the Bronx Times published an excellent article on the foundation of this parish, with important clarifications. Arthur Scanlan, it was, who chose to name the parish St. Helena because Spellman's mother, deceased five years previously was Ellen. When I walked the neighborhood, I wasn't looking for the green building, the former tavern in which Mass was first offered. A corner of it may be in the photo below! Also, there is a reference to Gustav Schultheiss, the priest of Staten Island origin, whom I met in 1950, in a practice session for an episcopal Mass. He was the antithesis opposite of gruff, putting the servers at ease. 
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The parish elementary school is at 2050 Benedict Avenue, adjacent to the church. Its website is linked here. 

Above is the elementary school as seen from Westchester Avenue. The school entrance is on the other side, Benedict Avenue.

Above, another view from Westchester Avenue.
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The parish high school, Msgr. Scanlan High School, is about a mile south of the church, at 915 Hutchinson River Parkway, Bronx NY 10465.

Aquinas High School, East 182 St.

Aquinas High School, a leading Catholic high School for girls, is located at 685 East 182nd Street, Bronx NY 10457, where both Belmont Avenue and Grote Street meet 182nd Street. The telephone is718-367-2113. The school website is linked here.


Aquinas High School is not a parish or archdiocesan high school. Rather, as with numerous Catholic high schools and academies, it was established by a congregation of teaching Sisters, the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill. They and lay teachers have staffed the school for many decades.


The above photos are taken from the east side of the intersection, where the parish church of St. Martin of Tours is located.


The Metropolitan Transit Authority inherited many of its bus routes from previous owners who had arranged with some high schools to provide direct bus service at the student fare, rather than have students change from bus-to-bus. Perhaps because of the different requirements for school buses, in recent years these routes have become marked as public routes. They have never used yellow buses. This bus stop sign shows that at dismissal students may board a Bx12 bus which travels Fordham Road to Sedgwick Avenue.


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Mount St. Michael, Murdock Avenue, Wakefield

Above, the main entrance on Murdock Avenue. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Above is the view from the intersection of Nereid Avenue and Murdock Avenue.
Above, St. Michael the Archangel, guards the campus from rival teams in sports.

Above, looking east across from Nereid Avenue to Pitman Avenue. That is the Brothers' house, with football field and all-weather track to the left.


See page 378, for a passing reference to the arrival of the French-speaking Marist Brothers from Quebec. Their work continues at Mount St. Michael Academy, a boys' school (grades 6-12), 4300 Murdock Ave., Bronx NY 10466, telephone 718-515-6400.
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The Marists continue the work begun by St. Marcellin Champagnat in 1817 in southern France. They opened St. Anne's Academy on East 76 Street, Manhattan, in 1892, and in 1926 they opened Mount St. Michael Academy in The Bronx. In addition to the academy's scholastic work, the Mount is long-famous in Bronx high school sports. This is the same community that built Marist College in Poughkeepsie.
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The academy property is large. It is bounded by Murdock Avenue on the south, Pitman Avenue on the east, Mundy Lane on the north, and Nereid Avenue on the west. According to John McNamara's "History in Asphalt," Murdock Campbell was a Wakefield real estate agent around 1899, Pitman the name of a landowner further south on Pitman, Mundy a funeral director, and Nereid the name of a fire brigade near Richardson Avenue and Nereid Ave., which is also East 238th Street.

St Raymond parish, Westchester or Parkchester

St. Raymond's church is on East Tremont Avenue at Castle Hill Avenue.  This view looks south. 
See page 171 for an account of the founding of St. Raymond Parish in 1842 by Father Felix Vilanis, "who had been the first rector of St Joseph's Seminary in Fordham two years earlier." Page 141 has an old photo of the original St Raymond's church. Note that this was once the Town of Westchester within the County of Westchester, before Bronx County was formed. See page 174 for later history and photos of the present church, built in 1898, shown also above.
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The parish website is linked here. The history page on that website explains that the patron is St. Raymond Nonnatus (1204-1240). The rectory address is 1759 Castle Hill Ave., Bronx NY 10462, and the phone number is 718-792-4044.
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McNamara's Blog, linked here, reproduces a 1914 history of St. Raymond's parish.  This snippet adds much to other accounts, as it describes the early parish history in more detail.

The rectory and church seen from Castle Hill Avenue. The front of the church faces Tremont Avenue, to the right.
Clicking on any photo enlarges it. Above is the interior of St. Raymond's church. According to the New York City Organ Project, the church, built in 1898, was designed by George H. Streeton, who later designed St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn.  As of November, 2010, the lower church is being used for services.  A note in the parish bulletin states that the upper church will be renovated by the spring of 2011.

St. John Baptist de la Salle. A biography is here.

The above building now houses the girls' high school.

Above, looking west from the front steps of the church. It seems the church yard was much larger before this elementary school was built about 1950, as shown in this link a helpful reader has sent me. It is a 1905 view from past the school and facing the church. It shows the extent of the graveyards in 1905. It is also a good view of the church.


Above, looking west. The parish owns two other cemeteries, about two miles east.

Above, the rear of the elementary school is seen from Purdy Street.

Above, looking south from Tremont Avenue. Both the elementary school and the girls' high school are entered through this gate.

At some point after 1924, year unknown, the parish built the above building at 1754 Castle Hill Avenue as a convent for the Sisters of Charity. It seems that in the late 1950's a new convent was built on the south side of Metropolitan Avenue, and the De La Salle Christian Brothers moved from a frame house several blocks away on Benson Street to this commodious building. One can see the chapel and a parlor facing the sun. The entrance is on the far side, on Castle Hill Avenue. The new convent, with elegance resembling Motel 6, is now used for parish or archdiocesan offices. In June, 2018, the pastor, Rev. James Cruz, removed the De La Salle Brothers from work in this parish.
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The parish website is linked here. The rectory address is 1759 Castle Hill Ave., Bronx NY 10462, and the phone number is 718-792-4044.
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The parish maintains an elementary school at 2380 East Tremont Avenue, adjacent to the church, a girls' high school, St. Raymond Academy at 1725 Castle Hill Avenue, and St. Raymond High School for Boys, at 2151 St. Raymond Avenue, Bronx NY 10462, main entrance on Purdy St. The De La Salle Christian Brothers were 1909 to 2018. The 2008 edition of the Official Catholic Directory gave these enrollment figures: 654 students in the elementary school, 351 students in the girls' academy, and 714 students in the boys' high school.
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Above is St. Raymond High School for Boys at the corner of St. Raymond Avenue and Purdy Street.

In the fall of 2011, a new entrance and addition was constructed along Purdy Street.

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An 1924 aerial view of St. Raymond's parish may be viewed here, courtesy of the New York Public Library.

St Barnabas, Woodlawn

To the left of the steps, one can detect the door to a new elevator connecting street level with both the upper and lower churches. In this photo, Martha Avenue, going north, is at the left, and the next building is in the city of Yonkers. To the right is East 241 Street, Bronx, with the rectory and elementary school in sight.

A click on any photo enlarges it.
Looking west at McLean Avenue and Hyatt Avenue, Yonkers. This is St. Barnabas Chapel, on the street level of the high school.




See pages 478 and 479 for the creation of St. Barnabas Parish, Woodlawn, in 1910. The present church, built in 1911 at the corner of East 241 Street and Martha Avenue, has long been insufficient for all the Sunday Masses. Some Masses are said at a nearby school building on McLean Avenue, Yonkers. The border separating two cities (New York and Yonkers) apparently goes through the parish property. The rectory address is 409 East 241 St., Bronx NY 10470, telephone 718-324-1478.  The parish website, with exceptionally clear layout, is linked here.
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The Sisters of Charity and religious sisters of other congregations have staffed the parish schools (K-12) for many decades. The address of the parish elementary school is 413 East 241 St., Bronx NY 10470. The website of the elementary school is here. An enrollment of 400 was reported to the Official Catholic Directory, but this count seems to include Pre-K.  The website of the girls' high school at 425 East 240th Street is here.