In 1849 the Brothers, Priests and Sisters of Holy Cross arrived in New Orleans after they had established the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and took over an orphanage for the boys and girls who survived a plague. The orphanage, along with the first Ursuline School for Girls (the oldest Catholic School in America), was destroyed to make room for the 1923 Industrial Canal, which experienced levee failures that flooded large parts of New Orleans twice, with Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.[3]
In 1871, Holy Cross moved to its historic site, which then was a farm named St. Isidore's farm, on 4950 Dauphine Street, and built a renowned "collegiate-styled campus" and established in 1879 its current school, bordered by the high Mississippi River levee. The area has since become a Federal Historic District known as the Holy Cross Historic District.
First chartered by the State of Louisiana in 1890, the name was changed to Holy Cross in 1895 when the Administration Building was dedicated. A boarding program, which continued until 1973, attracted as many as 150 students annually from across the South as well as from Central and South America.
Prior to 2015 Holy Cross had grades 5–12. The archdiocese began requiring schools to fit one of three grade configurations (PK-7, 8–12, or PK-12) in order to continue affiliation, and Holy Cross needed to change its grade configuration.[5] The school administration decided for the school to become PK-12.[6]
Holy Cross relocation
With Hurricane Katrina, the campus was flooded with waters from the levee failures on the Industrial Canal and levees "over-topped" by storm surge along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), which destroyed the area in August 2005. The school relocated to the Gentilly/7th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans at 5500 Paris Avenue, the campuses of the former St. Francis Cabrini Parish and Redeemer-Seton High School. The new location of Holy Cross High School includes a high school, middle school, preschool, elementary school, athletic facilities, and an administration building.
The Advisory Committee of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries chose Holy Cross to receive a $50,000 grant to purchase books for the school's library. First Lady Laura Bush visited Holy Cross on Thursday, April 19, 2007, to present the 14 grantees in Mississippi and Louisiana, including Holy Cross, with the donation.[7]
The former campus in the Lower Ninth Ward sits abandoned and plans for its renovation have not come to fruition.[8][9]
Holy Cross School fields teams and competitors in many sports. The school currently offers soccer, karate, football, basketball, tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, swimming, wrestling, power lifting, track and field, and cross country.
Athletics history Holy Cross was the first school in the New Orleans area to field a football team post-Katrina in late September of the 2005 football season.
Championships
Basketball championships
(1) State Championships: 1939
Football championships
(2) State Championships: 1945, 1963
Championship history The Tigers were the 1939 state basketball champions. They again made the championship game in 1974 but lost to Brother Martin.
Holy Cross has won the Louisiana State Wrestling Championship 25 times. They have also had a total of 207 individual state champions and 192 state runner-up finishes. Twenty-two of those titles were won during the 24-year period of 1945 to 1968; 1951 and 1966 were the only years in this period when the state championship was not won by the Tigers. The latest championship was won in 2009.
Rivals
Holy Cross football vs. Jesuit football is one of the oldest continuous high school rivalry in Louisiana. The first game was played in 1922 (which Jesuit won 52–0).[11] The two teams have played every year since, including twice in 1963 (once in regular season and again for the state crown, which Holy Cross won).
The Tigers have also had a long rivalry with Chalmette High School, owing to Holy Cross' former location in the Lower 9th Ward and its large student population from neighboring St. Bernard Parish. Chalmette and Holy Cross were rivals in the New Orleans Catholic League from 1968 through 1988.
Primary school
In March 2014, Holy Cross School announced that they will open a primary school and become a Pre-K through 12 school.[6] Holy Cross is the only all-boys Catholic school in the Greater New Orleans area to offer a comprehensive Pre-K through 12th grade education.[6] Holy Cross Primary School opened to all grades (Pre-K through 4) in the fall of 2015.
St. Bernard Parish is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat and largest community is Chalmette. The parish was formed in 1807. St. Bernard Parish is part of the New Orleans–Metairie metropolitan statistical area; the parish is located southeast of the city of New Orleans and comprises the Chandeleur Islands and Chandeleur Sound in the east.
Arabi is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, between the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and Chalmette within the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area. The population was 4,533 at the 2020 census.
Chalmette is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. Bernard Parish in southeastern Louisiana, United States. The 2010 census reported that Chalmette had 16,751 people; 2011 population was listed as 17,119; however, the pre-Katrina population was 32,069 at the 2000 census. At the 2020 U.S. census, its population rebounded to 21,562. Chalmette is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area. Chalmette is located east of downtown New Orleans and south of Arabi, towards Lake Borgne.
Jesuit High School is a private, non-profit, Catholic college-preparatory high school for boys run by the USA Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus in Mid-City New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was founded in 1847 by the Jesuits as the College of the Immaculate Conception before taking on its current name in 1911, and serves students of all religious faiths.
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory is a Jesuit, college-preparatory school for boys, grades 9–12, in the Chinatown area and in the Greater Sharpstown district of Houston, Texas, United States. It is near Alief.
Archbishop Rummel High School is a Catholic, Lasallian secondary school for boys located in Metairie, a community in unincorporated Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The school is named after Archbishop Joseph Rummel, a former Archbishop in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Gentilly is a broad, predominantly middle-class and racially diverse section of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Gentilly neighborhood is bounded by Lake Pontchartrain to the north, France Road to the east, Bayou St. John to the west, and CSX Transportation railroad tracks to the south.
Archbishop Shaw High School is an archdiocesan school administered under the Salesians of Don Bosco. It is approved by the Louisiana State Department of Education and the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. Founded in 1962, it is located in Marrero, Louisiana, and is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Brother Martin High School is a private, Catholic, all-boys college preparatory school run by the United States Province of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was established by the brothers in 1869 as St. Aloysius College. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Catholic of Pointe Coupee is a Catholic Interparochial school in New Roads, Louisiana. It was founded in 1904 by the Sisters of St. Joseph who were commissioned to bring Catholic education to Pointe Coupee Parish.
Archbishop Hannan High School is a Catholic, co-ed, high school located in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. Its mascot is called Harry The Hawk. The school's motto is Caritas Viniculum Perfectionis, which translates to "charity leads to perfection." It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Redeemer-Seton High School was a Catholic high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was permanently closed after Hurricane Katrina damaged the campus in September 2005. A formal honorary commencement ceremony was held for Katrina graduates at St. Rita's Church in New Orleans on June 25, 2006.
De La Salle High School is a private, Catholic secondary school run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. The school's campus is located at the picturesque St. Charles Avenue in uptown New Orleans, near the Audubon/University District. It was founded by the De La Salle Brothers in 1949. De La Salle High School offers grades 8 through 12. The school is affiliated with the Lasallian mission, and functions within the school system of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
St. Augustine High School is a private, Catholic, all-boys high school run by the Josephites in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was founded in 1951 and includes grades 8 through 12.
Loyola College Prep is a private Catholic coeducational high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), but now operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport. It is among the oldest functioning former Jesuit high schools in the United States.
Chalmette High School is a public secondary school in the unincorporated Chalmette area of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of St. Bernard Parish Public Schools.
St. Charles Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Laplace, Louisiana. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Jesuit High School is a private, Catholic, college-preparatory school run by the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus in Beaverton outside Portland, Oregon, United States, in the Archdiocese of Portland. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1956 and uses a Jesuit, college-preparatory curriculum. It is coeducational and enrolls approximately 1,300 students of all faiths.
The Catholic League is a high school sports league in the Greater New Orleans area.
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