Cretin High School was named for Joseph Crétin, the first Catholic bishop of Saint Paul, while Derham Hall High School was named for Hugh Derham, a Minnesota farmer who donated money to start an all-female Catholic boarding school.
The present-day Cretin-Derham Hall is the result of a merger between Cretin High School and Derham Hall in 1987. The origins of Cretin High School begin at the second cathedral of the diocese, where the Cathedral School operated out of the basement of the three-floor building.[4]:357 Bishop John Ireland had long been asking for the Christian Brothers to come operate the Cathedral School. In 1871, after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed two Christian Brothers schools, two brothers moved to Minnesota and took charge of the Cathedral School.[4]:358 When the second cathedral was badly damaged and demolished after a fire in 1886, a new building in downtown Saint Paul was constructed. Around this time, while still formally called Cathedral School, it began to be informally called Cretin High School or Cretin Hall after the auditorium in the new building.[4]:359 This building, however, soon began to not meet the needs of the institution and in 1926 Cretin High School moved to a site on Laurel and Mackubin Streets in St. Paul. The current building at Hamline and Randolph opened in 1928, built with a gift from the widow of James J. Hill.[5]
In the late 1800s, the school incorporated a mandatory program of instruction grounded in the tradition of a military institute, which makes it one of the oldest such programs in the United States. Instruction included lessons in leadership, close-order drill and ceremonies, and numerous other strictly non-combat-related instruction designed to instill a sense of discipline and order in all aspects of student life. The National Defense Act of 1916 created the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), a more formalized program of instruction with national oversight for training standards and a provision for active duty and retired soldiers and officers as instructors. Cretin's "military program" became one of the first Junior ROTC (JROTC) programs in the country, and participation remained mandatory for all students until the early 1980s, when it became voluntary.[6][7]
Derham Hall was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1905 as a college preparatory school for girls and was originally located on the campus of St. Catherine University (then the College of St. Catherine) in the original building, Derham Hall.[8] In 1987, the two merged to become Cretin-Derham Hall, a co-educational institution. The original building on the St. Catherine campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[9]
Athletics
Cretin-Derham Hall is part of the Suburban East Conference[10] in the Minnesota State High School League. Prior to joining the Suburban East Conference, Cretin-Derham Hall played in the Saint Paul City Conference for twenty six years. The Raiders won their tenth state championship in football in 2009 with a 16–5 win over Eden Prairie in the title game. The Raiders most recently captured its third state championship in 2018 with 79–78 win over Apple Valley when Daniel Oturu scored the game-winner on an alley-oop dunk with .5 seconds remaining that was nationally recognized on ESPN.
State championships
List of Cretin-Derham Hall athletics state championships won
Cretin-Derham Hall additionally has a theater program both in terms of co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities. The Cretin-Derham Hall theater department has achieved first place in the Minnesota State High School League One Act Competition although the school no longer participates.[17]
In the summer of 2005 the theater department was one of about 20 schools invited to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. This invitation was "based on their most recent bodies of work, awards, community involvement, philosophies, and recommendations."[18]
The spring musical of 2009, Crazy for You, won an Outstanding awards for Overall Production of a Musical, Performance by a Chorus Ensemble, Performance by a Dance Ensemble, and two for Performances in a Leading Role from Spotlight Musical Theatre Awards. In addition, three Honorable Mentions were given to Performance in a Lead Role, Performance in a Supporting Role, and Performance in a Featured Role.[19]
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(January 2011)
Cretin High School, Derham Hall, and Cretin-Derham Hall High School have been attended by several persons of note in its history, including:
John Albers - former chairman, CEO and president of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Companies
Mark Alt - former hockey defenseman for several NHL teams
1 2 3 O'Connell, Marvin Richard (2009). Pilgrims to the Northland: the Archdiocese of St. Paul, 1840-1962. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN9780268037291.
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