The Establishment Of Stonington's Only Catholic School

It was the early 1870s, and Fr. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick was pastor of in Pawcatuck. In the first decade of the church's life, the parishioners really established their new parish well, and by 1873, Fr. Fitzpatrick was ready to establish a school. In fact, it would be the only Catholic school in all of Stonington.

The property at 69 Liberty St. was purchased by a local granite worker and parishioner named Thomas Bennett from William Maxson to become the site of St. Michael School. This property consisted of two houses which still stand today. St. Michael's had trouble acquiring the house, since the Maxsons refused to sell the property directly to a Catholic church. So, Thomas Bennett purchased the property on June 30th, 1873, and the next day, sold it to the St. Michael Church for $6,250, the same price he paid for it. (This story repeated itself when the present site of the school was acquired in 1890)

was established in 1873 by Fr. Fitzpatrick, and the Sisters of Mercy. The school's original location was 69 Liberty St. in a large white house which still stands today. The first floor was home to the school, and the upstairs was home to the original Convent of the Sacred Heart. There was also a small chapel on the second floor. When St. Michael Church bought the property where the original schoolhouse was located, the house behind 69 Liberty St. (8 Robinson St). This house was used as the school's annex. (In recent renovations of these houses, chalkboards have been found inside the walls)

The summer that the school started, the children gathered in the main room of the small house. In the first few years that St. Michael School served Pawcatuck's Catholics, there were probably one hundred forty kids in attendance. Most of the children became ill in the first few weeks of school's existence. There are some descendants of some original students that still attend the school.

Within a little over a decade, the administrators of the school realized that the two small houses were just to small to house so many kids. Also, the student population was growing so rapidly, the realized that they needed a bigger facility to house the school.

St. Michael's quickly found the new location of St. Michael School. The history of how this took place, Rev. Ambrose Briscoe, Michael Higgins, and the construction of the new St. Michael School will be discussed in next week's article.

A special thanks to: St. Michael the Archangel a History and Memories of Our Parish and School-written by the St. Michael School Alumni Committee