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

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.

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 14 text:

The ever increasing number of pupils clamoring for entrance forced the Brothers to move to their present site in l927. This new building was designed in English Gothic style. lt has a chapel and Brothers' resi- dence connected to the school by a cloistered walk. The school has a monastic air in its architecture which reminds one of the abbies and the universities on the European continent in the thirteenth century. There is a striking contrast between it and lBishop Cretin's brick building of l85l. Classes had been conducted by the Brothers in the old Webster School building pending the completion of the present edifice. ln their more spacious quarters, with better accommodations and facilities, nothing has been left undone to bring Cretin to the front rank of the educational institutions of the city. That this laudable ambition of