LAKE CHARLES – Now 102 years old, Sacred Heart Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic School has been honored by the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation with a 2010 Preservation Honor Award.
At the organization’s recent annual conference in Shreveport, the school, which was founded in 1908 – the first private, parochial school for African-Americans in the city – was presented with the award by organization secretary, A.C. Bourdier of Lake Charles. The presentation was made to Herman Metoyer, a former principal of the school as well as an alumnus, who accepted on behalf of the school. Bourdier, who worked diligently with Metoyer to nominate the landmark, noted that the school is now automatically included on the list of Calcasieu Historic Preservation Awards to be given in January.
Local African-American businessmen saw the great need for a school to educate their children and eventually hired Miss Eleanor Figaro, who, along with Miss Mary Ryan, began teaching in a building located at the corner of Enterprise Boulevard and Mill Street with 18 students.
In 1910, a new structure was built at the corner of Louisiana Avenue and Pine Street, which would be nicknamed the “little red schoolhouse”.
In August 1919, the church parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus was established and for two years the Christmas Mass was celebrated in the “little red schoolhouse” by Father Anthony Hackett, a priest of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
It was in May 1922 that the relationship between Sacred Heart and St. Katharine Drexel began as Father Hackett secured the services of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Katharine Drexel, the daughter of Francis Drexel, the scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family, used her inheritance from her father to finance her religious order the order to buld schools for Native Americans and African Americans across the Untied States.
Her financial contributions to the school and the parish built the convent, which housed, initially three nuns who would began teaching in the school. She also provided funds the addition of a second story to the church and four classrooms into which the school operations were moved.
Saint Katharine Drexel made several personal visits to the school over the intervening years, thus becoming the only Saint of the Catholic Church to walk its grounds and halls or any other school in the city. Pope John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000 at the Vatican. During her lifetime, she financially provided for the establishment of 60 schools as well as Xavier University in New Orleans.
