Cretin High School - Cretinite Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

Page 12 text:

and marched proudly to their new quarters. They carried with them a brick from the crumbling old red school and placed it on the Director's desk in the new school-a solitary link with the wild but glamorous past. St. Paul had noticeably matured since l85l when fur trading was practically its only business. Now the city was taking shape as a commercial and industrial center of the northwest. ln answer to these changed conditions and the demands of the students, a three year commercial high school department was added to the regular eight grades in l889. Yet despite changes in location and the expansion of its facilities, Cretin retained much of the old spirit engendered by the Brothers in the Cathedral School. Thoroughness more than brilliance characterized the methods of instructionp discipline was maintained through strictness tempered with kindly understanding.

Page 11 text:

Brother Jucondian, the Director, and Brother Diogenius John arrived on All Soul's Day, 1871, to take charge of the two classes that then made up the Cathedral school. However heavy may have been the new ruling hand, the school thrived. Next year there were four classes, five Brothers. By 1875 Brothers were teaching in the Assumption and St. Mary's parish schools as well, and for more than ten years to follow, growth in the number of pupils and in the quality of the work is the main thread of the story. ln the eighties it became evident that not only was the old Cathedral school too small to care for the number of boys seeking admission, but that the building itself, hastily erected thirty-five years back, was no longer suitable. A new school solid and imposing, was constructed not far away on Sixth and Main, and tittingly named Cretin after its real founder. ln 1888 the boys left the old building, perhaps not without regrets,

Page 13 text:

When the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the Brothers in St. Paul was observed in l896, Brother Emery, the director, gathered together the former students who had returned to show their appreciation and esteem and formed an alumni association. The new organization held its first banquet that year in connection with the celebration. Further progress in the educational scope ot the school was made during the directorship of Brother Edmund who, in l9l4, inaugurated the full four-year high school program that is now an established part of the school. And again in l9l7, with an eye towards strengthening discipline and courtesy in the school, Brother J. Elzear introduced military training. Since l93O, the R. O. T. C. unit of the school has attained each year the coveted national honor rating.