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To be complete a history of St. Mary's Academy must begin with Blessed Mother Marie Rose Durocher, who was born in 1811 and died in 1849. She founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in 1843 in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. Mother Marie Rose was a woman ahead of her time - one who saw a need and did something to meet that need. The upper classes were well-cared for by other religious communities, but there was a great need for the instruction of young girls of the villages for whom there were no teachers. These would be the mother educators and leaders of the future, and for them Mother Marie Rose began her work. Tuition paid by the more wealthy families enabled the Sisters to also include the very poor in their schools. To this day our mission includes special care for the poor.
At the time of Mother Marie Rose's death just six years after the Congregation was begun, there were forty-four Sisters teaching in four schools. In 1859 Oregon's Archbishop Francis Norbert Blanchet requested that Sisters come to the Pacific Northwest to open a school for frontier children. The Congregation numbered seventy-two when twelve Sisters were missioned by Mother Theresa of Jesus to leave Montreal and travel by boat for thirty-six days to Portland where they began the first Holy Names mission in the United States. These women, ranging in age from 18 to 33, knew very little English yet they were willing to come to a strange land knowing they might never return to their homes and loved ones. Ten Sisters were French speaking and two Irish Sisters spoke English. Their home in Portland was the Lownsdale House, located on the east block across Fifth Avenue from the present St. Mary's. The house had been vacant for some time and was in shambles. Just fifteen days after their October 21 arrival the Sisters opened St. Mary's Academy. Six students (three Catholic, two Jewish, and one Anglican) enrolled on the first day. On November 16 a boarding school was begun when the Sisters were asked to care for a 7 year old orphan girl. The Archbishop persuaded the Sisters to accept boys, so on November 20 the first boys arrived, and St. Mary's remained co-ed for 12 years. By the end of the first school year there was a student body of one hundred, twelve boarders and eighty-eight day students.
By 1865 Holy Names schools operated in Oregon City, St. Paul, Salem, The Dalles, and Jacksonville. In Jacksonville two Sisters cared for the many victims of the dreaded smallpox epidemic of 1869.
St. Mary's tradition of teaching the fine arts began with our early Sisters, who felt that art and music were important for a well-rounded education. They stopped in New York on their way from Montreal and purchased a piano. There was great rejoicing on February 24, 1860 when the piano arrived, having been shipped around the Horn. St. Mary's Academy also boasted one of the first sewing machines in Portland.
In 1867 the first two graduates received their diplomas. Since then over 10,000 young women have graduated from St. Mary's, the oldest continuously operating high school in Oregon. In 1893 St. Mary's received a charter to grant college diplomas. It was the first women's liberal arts college in the northwest and was known until 1930 as St. Mary's Academy and College.
In 1904 St. Mary's entered a float in Portland's Rose Festival parade, winning a $25 prize! The first Rose Queen, Carrie Lee Chamberlain, was a student at St. Mary's. (Her father was the governor.
The early 1920s brought the Sisters and St. Mary's Academy much concern and prominence with the passage of the Oregon School Bill. The Sisters of the Holy Names as owners of St. Mary's Academy were one plaintiff in fighting the Bill. The case began with the "Compulsory Education Bill" which was proposed by initiative petition and passed in the election of 1922. It was to take effect in 1926 and would have required all students attend public schools. The Holy Names Sisters challenged the law in U.S. District Court where it was declared unconstitutional in 1924. Governor Pierce appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which also declared on June 1, 1925 that the law was unconstitutional. This famous decision upheld the right of parents in Oregon and in the entire United States to provide for the education of their children in private schools.
In 1930 the college moved to Marylhurst and became Marylhurst College. St. Mary's present building was begun in 1940 and completed in 1965, having been built in three sections.
In 1946 St. Mary's became a high school only, and in 1951 the boarding school was discontinued.
In 1970 the old building was sold and demolished. The retaining wall, built in 1865 from the ballast of English sailing ships, still remains.
Excellence in education and the full development of each person have been part of the mission of St. Mary's through the years. Along with academics, students develop in the areas of spirituality, service, and athletics.
Students of all faiths have the opportunity to participate in liturgies, retreats, and class activities that promote spiritual growth and emphasize the teachings of Jesus Christ as expressed in The Gospel, through the tradition of the Catholic Church and as proclaimed through the charism of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.
Each young woman at St. Mary's Academy is involved in a vital faith community, which includes its integrated four-year religion curriculum, campus ministry program, retreats, and service opportunities. It embraces all and seeks to bring its members to greater self-awareness and understanding of their roles as visible signs of God's love of the world. Our mission statement outlines a clear call to service with a special concern for the economically and emotionally poor and disadvantaged. Students are encouraged to integrate service into their lives and make it a lifelong commitment.
St. Mary's athletic program grew with the school. Sports were a major intramural activity until the 1970s when women's athletics became a part of the Oregon School Activities Association. Students at St. Mary's had the advantage of playing on CYO teams, so our teams were ready for inter-school games. One part of our history that not many people know is the origin of our colors and name, the Blues. During the 1973-74 school year, after our volleyball team played several other schools, they were invited to a tournament at Portland State University. An SMA alumna who was involved in athletics said that our girls simply could not play wearing cut-offs and t-shirts! She went to sporting goods stores looking for uniforms and found a set of blue and white uniforms that another school had ordered and then cancelled. She bought them for half-price, and these became volleyball and basketball uniforms for several seasons. Formerly our school colors were red and white, and now we had blue uniforms! At games enthusiastic dads yelled, "Come on Blue!" and so St. Mary's Blues became our name, and we then officially changed the school colors to blue and white. From a few bloomer-clad basketball players of the '20s to over seventy percent of the students involved in at least one sport during high school, SMA has come a long way. As a member of the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), St. Mary's competes in nine 4A level sports - cross country, soccer, volleyball, basketball, swimming, golf, softball, tennis, and track & field - in the Mt. Hood Conference. St. Mary's Blues teams also compete in four club sports - alpine and nordic skiing, lacrosse, and dragon boat racing.
The spirit of Mother Marie Rose Durocher has been evidenced through 146 years at St. Mary's Academy, as it has in schools, missions, and varied ministries in Canada, the United States, Lesotho, Haiti, Peru, and Brazil. St. Mary's began in 1859 with twelve Sisters. Today there are three are Holy Names Sisters , and forty-three faculty, six of whom are SMA alumnae. The ecumenical make-up of our student body has been constant through the years. Of the first six students, fifty percent were not Catholic and today this holds true of our 600 students. During the first year the Sisters cared for orphans; today over thirty percent of our students receive financial aid, with the most needy receiving ninety-seven percent aid. St. Mary's seeks to provide the best for our students: in the 1800s a harp and sewing machine enabled us to do that; today electronic music and state-of-the-art computer technology keep us on the cutting-edge of education.
Mother Marie Rose was a woman of her times, one who was willing to take risks to meet the needs of the people around her. We at St. Mary's believe that our graduates are also women of their times who make a difference wherever they may be. Mother Marie Rose's spirit is very much alive in all those who have been and are currently a part of St. Mary's.
Compiled by Sister Shawn Marie Barry
August 21, 1991, Edited in 1993, 2002, 2003, 2005
For more information, contact Sister Linda Patrick, SNJM '67, Assistant Principal Student Life
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