Article Database Restoration of St. Mary's School

In October 1998 a concerned group of citizens formed an action group called "The Friends of Old St. Mary's Girls School (1909)" with the dual goals of raising public awareness and preventing the demolition of the historic St. Mary's Girls School which had stood abandoned at the edge of the Mission District in Calgary for the past five years.

Through the persistence of this citizens action group, which has since changed its official title to the "Society for the Preservation and Restoration of St. Mary's School (1909)" the landmark has been identified as a potential candidate for designation as a Provincial Historic Resource. The Society has worked diligently to not only educate the public on the importance of preserving such sites for the benefit of all Albertans, but to develop partnerships between their society, the community, the Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 1, the City of Calgary, the Provincial Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada.

Although the school itself was erected in 1909, its true origin was derived from the arrival of the Sisters, Faithful Companions of Jesus in 1885. Founded in Amiens, France in 1820, the Sisters believed themselves to be companions of Jesus whose purpose was to create institutes not only for the education of children, but places of retreat for all people.

In 1885 four Sisters arrived in Calgary where Father Albert Lacombe offered them his newly built mission and surrounding lands on St. Mary Street (now 19 Avenue S.W., Calgary), in what was then known as the French village of Rouleauville. By the time that Alberta became a province in 1905, St. Mary's School had become the first to offer a complete Catholic high school education supported by public funds.

The building itself functioned as a school until 1979 when it was converted into a Catholic Pastoral Centre and Daycare until it's eventual abandonment in 1995.