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| St. Joseph Commercial High School |
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The History of St. Joseph Commercial High School
Joliet (population 129,519)
is located in northeastern Illinois in west-central Will County. In fact, is the county seat of Will County and
spills over into Kendall County to the west. Joliet was platted in 1834 and officially incorporated in 1852. After much
discussion over the town's early name (it was known as Juliet from 1834 to 1845), Joliet was settled upon to
honor Louis Joliet, famous explorer who first viewed the area in 1673. A number of routes have served as ways to reach Joliet, including the legendary Route 66,
which was replaced by Interstate 55, along with Interstate 80, US Routes 6, 30, 45, 52, and Illinois Routes 7, 53,
and 171. The rail service has been provided by the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern (EJE) RR, along with the AT & SF RR,
& the former Rock Island RR, which shut down in 1980. Daily commuter service to Chicago is offered by Metra
(short for Metropolitan Train Service) from the Regional Transportation Authority based in Chicago. The Des Plaines River
also flows thru the heart of Joliet, and the community also served as a primary stop on the Illinois & Michigan
Canal. St. Joseph Commercial High School
was opened in September 1914 by the Rev. John Krajnec on Scott Street
near Chicago Street on the city's east side by the Des Plaines River as a two-year commercial
high school with nine co-ed students enrolled. The school's beginning coincided with the opening of a new school building
for grade school students of the parish, which still stands today. St. Joseph first opened
a grade school in 1895 and is located in a neighborhood that was the home of many Slovenian
immigrants. High school courses for the school were held in the building pictured above, on the second floor in the rooms
to the left.
| Joliet St. Joseph Academy Class of 1916 |
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The School Sisters of St. Francis Mary
Immaculate were in charge of the school, which closed in
1919 due to the opening of DeLaSalle High School & the renaming of Providence High School (from St. Mary's) in order
to allow those students in the neighborhood to pursue
a Catholic education at a four-year academic high school. FACTS ABOUT JOLIET ST. JOSEPH COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL Year
opened:
1914 Year
closed: 1919
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Memories & Facts **From an informed historian, who wishes to remain anonymous: "The parish schools at Saint John's and Saint Joseph's were both
grade and high
schools until 1918, and also until 1918, the original Providence High School (at
Cass and Ottawa) was called Saint Mary's Academy.
Joliet
was then part of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the bishop, Cardinal Mundelein,
believed very strongly in the superiority of larger, centralized high schools.
These were usually run by religious Orders that were expert in teaching, as
opposed to the smaller parish high schools, which he saw simply as outgrowths of
the grade schools and under the immediate supervision of the parish priest, who
was not typically expert in pedagogy as were the various Orders of teaching
Brothers, teaching priests and school Sisters. As a result, Cardinal Mundelein
not only encouraged the Christian Brothers to found the new, centralized De La
Salle High School (precursor to Joliet Catholic) in Joliet in 1918, but at the
same time, he stressed unambiguously to pastors throughout the archdiocese that
to upgrade the quality of secondary education, he wanted the small parish high
schools closed (or at least phased out gradually) in order to lend strength to
the emerging centralized high schools. Although not every parish in the
archdiocese complied, most did, including the two Joliet parish high schools at
Saint John's and Saint Joseph's.
At that same
time, the
Order responsible for Saint Mary's Academy departed from Joliet (where they were
also staffing four of the parish grade schools) and sold the high school to the
Sisters of Providence, who renamed it Providence High School, in honor of God,
the Faithful PROVIDER."
If You Have ANY Further Information to Share...
...regarding the history of Joliet St. Joseph Commercial Academy please contact us via the following means: USPS: IHSGD Website 6439 N. Neva Ave. Chicago, Il.
60631
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