Bishop McGuinness High School - Chi Rho Yearbook (Oklahoma City, OK)

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NLSH HO A :JO .L FIH OHW HHH N SDIO OHV VW D AJ. og? CMV' HER KSQS 121.295 ie: 'Ulm SES 52: Fen D' the Catherdal and thus the off1c1al church rn Oklahoma st1ll ar rrved before statehood St Joseph s Cathedral was completed and des1gnated Cathedral of the drocese of Oklahoma Theophlle Meer s hart Brshop 1n 1905 The seeds of farth that had been planted were now held down by an lmmovable root Whtle th1s was golng on 1n the center of town toward the south west extremlty of the c1ty the Srsters of Mercy were maklng the1r mark on the growlng ommumty The Slsters had been stafflng St Joseph s school from thelr mother house 1n Sacred Heart Oklahoma but reallzlng the place that Oklahoma Crty would have 1n the state IH years to come they decrded to moxe thelr mother house here and also erect an academy for the Catholxc g1r1s of the c1ty The Slsters took up resldence at St Joseph s but located the s1te for the1r academy and mother house at Southwest Twenty frfth and Shartel Avenue ln 1903 Mount St Mary s Academy came mto exrstence It had been a hard struggle for the Sisters who often had to walk from St Joseph s to the Mount crossmg a small footbrrdge over the North Canadlan Rlver Thelr flrst graduatlng class conslstmg of SIX young lad1es who were graduated rn 1906 SIX years later 1n 1912 a par1sh Sacred Heart was started across from the academy Lrke most of the parlshes ln the years to come rt bullt tts school frrst and conducted servlces rn If The Slsters of Mercy also undertook the job of stafflng the school Nxneteen twelve also saw the openrng of St Joseph s Orphanage by the Sxsters of Mercy Durlng the years from 1900 to 1919 Oklahoma C1ty contlnued to grow Though Henry Ford s automoblle had not yet replaced the horse and carrlage and the crty s mam thoroughfares of today such as Western Avenue were st1ll muddy lrttle lanes the c1ty had spread untll rt was slowly begmnmg to swallow up Farrlawn Cemetery which had long been considered the outermost extremlty of the town Then ln 1919 the avalanche of growth 1n that area called for the establxshment of a parlsh to serve that sectlon of the c1ty Father A F Monnot was commrssroned by Blshop Meerschart to set up the parrsh that was later to become the home of the Cathedral Father Monnot flrst sald Mass for hls new parlshroners 1n a garage at North west Thlrteenth and Classen Boulex ard, but he was soon able to Y .- - r 1 V V - r' x, , , . . V - . H . . . L . . A v - v . v I .. . . Y Y . xA . , . . F-1 ' , . . 7 x , . - , vk v 1 . Q . . . . , . . . , . 3 , - . . , . r 1 Q v . f w- . . . . 9 ' . v

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frrst tlme ln Oklahoma Crty and the crty s f1rst Cathollc par1sh St Joseph s came 1nto exrstcnce Its pastor and founder was the Rev N F Scanlon and by October of that legendary year of 1889 Father Scanlon had a frame church located on the present Slte of St Joseph s Old Cathedral Two years later rn 1891 the school was burlt and became the flrst school of any type to be burlt rn Oklahoma C1ty Frfty srx puprls most of them non Catholrc attended 1ts frrst classes lt was also IH that year that Theophlle Meerschart was rn stalled as the V1 ar Apostolrc of the lndlan terrltory to become rn later years the frrst Brshop of the drocese of Oklahoma ln 1897 Father D 1 Lanslot became pastor of thc par1sh and he was mstrumental not only rn furthermg the growth of St Jo seph s but also rn the erectlon of St Anthony s Hospltal Wlth the help of two Francxscan srsters Father Lanslot brought the hospltal to Oklahoma C1ty The three of them workrng together mg not far from the church When rmproper facrlxtres made rt 1m posslble to contlnue wrth 1t there they approached the c1ty council and begged for funds to erect a sultable structure to contam the hos prtal They were glven erght hundred dollars and wrth thrs bought the land at the present srte of Northwest Nrnth and Dewey Avenue Thls was then consldered far on the outskrrts of the rlslng lrttle c1ty The money obtalned from the crty councrl was not nearly enough to begln constructlon wlth so Father Lanslot and the two slsters agarn turned to the people Through contrrbutrons of materrals money and labor they bullt thelr hosprtal In November of 1899 If was formally dedrcated to St Anthony The orrgrnal structure con tamed only nme beds but was enlarged consrderably 1n 1904 The School of Nursrng was set up rn 1908 and rn 1911 the frrst chrld to be born at St Anthony s made IIS entrance rnto the world In the meantrme a new need had arrsen rn Oklahoma Crty Father Lanslot s lrttle wooden church was no longer large enough to accommodate hrs growmg par1sh and furthermore there was talk of a dlocese bemg formed out of the Oklahoma terrxtory wrth Okla homa C1ty as xts See Thus a Cathedral would have to be bullt Fath er Lanslot vrgorously accepted the assrgnment of burldmg the pro posed Cathedral and work was begun on the structure 1n 1902 But because of the lmmenslty of the task lack of money and srmrlar problems the burldmg went up slowly ln sprte of xt all however St Joseph s Parzsh St Anthony s Hospztal X , . . , ' ' in . ' '-1 . . , Q . i , Z , , ,Tj .C . . ' ri , . Z , . ,. 1 ' C . , . QU ' - ri , . ' . Z , . ' . . O started St. Anthony s durrng the summer of 1898 rn a frame buxld- E I I 1 1 1 1 5-1-1 Y ..s.. . . H O . . . . . 3 ' 31 - O - '-1 1 4 v ,-4 V

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purchase land for h1s church and consequently bought a square Clfy block at Northwest Thlrty second and Western Avenue two blocks north of the Faxrlawn Cemetery The flrst bulldmg constructed by Father Monnot vsas the school lhe flrst floor of the school served as a temporary chapel Then 1n l9Z4 the present Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral xx as completed and dedlcated It was also at th1s t1me that the Cathollc Home a newsPaper put out by the Carmel1te Fathers 1n Hartshorne moved 1ts plant to Oklahoma C1ty under the new name of the Southwest Courler and became a drocesan paper Also durmg th1s year Blshop Meerschart went to h1s eternal reward and Father Franc1s C Kelley became the new Brshop of the growmg dlocese Nlneteen twenty f1VL was a b1g year 1n the c1ty wlth two of the large present day parlshes Corpus Chf1Sfl and St Franc1s belng es tabl1shed Corpus Chr1st1 had rts begmmng rn a prxvate resldence at 6ll Northeast Erghth Street lt was there that Mass was flrst cele brated but after the erectlon of the school the chapel was moved to a room ln the school bu1ld1ng The erectlon of the school put the parmsh very deeply 1nto debt lt took the comlng of Father John J Walde IH l926 to frnally put the parxsh on 1ts feet and make lf the When Blshop Kelley came to the dlocese he recognlzed the need for a parrsh 1n the sectron of the c1ty surroundxng h1s offrcral IQSI dence at Elghteenth and Kentucky Thus St Franc1s of ASSISI came 1nto exrstence Durmg 1ts fxrst few years xt was not an mdependent parlsh slnce all of rts burldmgs and property were st1ll owned by the Blshop bexng the Brshop s off1c1al resldence lt contlnued to grow though l1ke all of the other parrshes mn the cxty and ln 1928 had progressed enough to merrt the openlng of 1ts school Also at th1s trme St Anthony s was growlng out of rtself and 1n l927 had to add a sxxty SIX bed add1t1on Wlth the completlon of th1s wmg, the orrgrnal structure was completely burred Also 1n 1927 Father James A Gary ey started Holy Angels parlsh rn the west central regxon of the c1ty at 317 North Blackwelder The par 1sh was started to serve the poorer sectlons of the c1ty surroundlng that area In l93l the c1ty experlenced two blg moves The Cathedral of the dlocese was moved from St Joseph s to Our l ady s and the B1sh H S AHOL :IO H.L El DHD HDH N O 'DI OHV VW D AJ. Cf: ENE? lC '11'D 'ac ar-me DEQ lifes- F'-US -mE: is D' , r--4 1 I 1 Y, X . . . 7 n r-YT 1 ' , 4 5 Y 5 J V . ' x I 3 -I . y 4 ' 1 a 1 gi . . , 1 4 P11 beautlful ed1f1ce rt IS today. Y . . ' ' '