Jesuit High School 1913

Jesuit High School 1913

by | Jul 18, 2021 | 1900s - 1910s, CBD, Jesuit High School

Jesuit High School first opened on Baronne Street, next to the church.

jesuit high school

Jesuit High School

Photo from the 1913 edition of The Picayune’s Guide to New Orleans, published by The New Orleans Picayune newspaper. The Church of the Immaculate Conception stands next to the College of the Immaculate Conception, in the 100 block of Baronne Street. The Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, ran the parish and the college. Additionally, they ran a high school program in the same building. In 1926, the Jesuits moved the high school to a new building in Mid-City. Jesuit High School, New Orleans, occupies the lake side of the corner of S. Carrollton Avenue and Banks Street.

The Society of Jesus in New Orleans

While the Capuchins ran the original parish of St. Louis in the Vieux Carré, the Jesuits purchased a tract of land in Faubourg Ste. Marie, in 1727. They administered the parish in that neighborhood. The Anglo-Irish referred to the neighborhood as “The American Sector.” The order constructed the church seen in this photo in the 1840s. It opened in 1850. The school was founded in 1847, and began operation in 1849.

College and High School

The Jesuits taught both high school and college classes on Baronne Street in the 19th Century. In 1911, they moved the college further Uptown, on St. Charles Avenue. The order re-organized the college. It became Loyola University of the South, now Loyola University of New Orleans. They changed the name of the high school when the college left Baronne Street.

With neither college nor high school occupying the building at Baronne and Common, the order demolished the school building seen here. They leased the corner to developers. An 18-story office building replaced the school. Unfortunately, construction of the Pere Marquette Building severely damaged the foundation of the church. Driving piles for the building shook the block. The Jesuits dis-assembled the church. They dedicated a new church, built in the same architectural style of the original, in 1930.

The office building is now the Renaissance New Orleans Pere Marquette Hotel.