Catholic Education & Parish Schools

this article was originally published in the parish bulletin of October 27, 2019

In the earliest days of the parish, catechism was taught in three different sessions.  The regular school was held in the basement of the church on Sundays, and there was another session at the Primary School in Purchase, led by Daniel O’Conner, Michael Casey and Jeremiah Shea, all of whom lived on upper Congress Street; and a third group that met under the supervision of Dominic Tevany at the West Street School.  With the arrival of the teaching Sisters of Notre Dame for the parish school, these classes were organized by the nuns on Sunday afternoons for twenty years.  Special credit is given to Mrs. Ellen Brown for her faithful dedication for decades along with Mary McGrath who taught the children in the basement of the church and also to Patrick Connolly who walked each week to and from church from his home in Medway in every kind of weather.

Catholic education in the parish took a major turn when Fr. Cuddihy purchased the former Erskine-Cook estate situated on Main Street on the same block as the church.  The stable of the property was converted to a school and the former mansion became the convent where the nine Sisters of Notre Dame who arrived in Milford, under the leadership of Sister Philomena lived.  They began classes in September of 1880.  That first year there were two hundred girls enrolled in the grammar school and another fourteen in high school.  The Sisters were earnest in their efforts providing a curriculum that included not only the 3 Rs but also religion and domestic skills which included sewing, embroidery, crocheting, knitting and household duties.  The Sisters efforts realized their first graduation of four young ladies six years later. 

A colorized postcard from the early 20^th century taken of Winter Street from the corner at Main Street.  Saint Mary’s Church, with its tower is recognizable in the distance on the left.  The building behind the trees with the red roof was the granite school built by Fr. Cuddihy.  The house to the right was the former Erskine-Cook estate that served as the first convent for the teaching Sisters of Notre Dame.  The primary grades of the original Saint Mary’s Academy were housed in the former stables behind the house.  This site is now the former Middle School & parking lot.

The increased attendance encouraged Fr. Cuddihy to recognize the need for a larger and more modern facility for education.  On June 30, 1896, the cornerstone for a new and stately granite school building on Winter Street was laid.  It was to be of two stories with a full basement.  The first floor was divided into four classrooms, each 25 by 35 feet in area.  The second floor was one large room with the ability to be partitioned into two smaller rooms.  The basement held a boiler and a coal room, coatrooms for the students, bathrooms, and a janitor’s room.  There were four doorways, two of them emergency exits.  The floors were of hard pine with iron staircases.  The granite was quarried entirely in Milford under the supervision of John L. Keefe, to the design of R. A. Cooke and the construction was supervised by Eugene F. Lynch with S. R. Emerson of Bellingham the mason.  The superstructure and roof were to be completed by August 1^st and the building completed by Christmas of 1896 at cost of between $20,000 to $30,000.