CATHEDRAL LATIN SCHOOL, a Catholic college preparatory school for boys, was founded by Bp. JOHN P. FARRELLY in 1916 at Euclid Ave. and East Blvd., with its administration building at 11105 Euclid, later Hitchcock Hall of CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV. (CWRU). The name derived from Boston Latin School in Massachusetts and from the school's proximity to the site of a planned Catholic cathedral (present location of SEVERANCE HALL). The school enrolled 130 students in 1916. Dr. Edward A. Mooney, later a priest and cardinal-archbishop of Detroit, served as the school's first president (1916-22). For the first 6 years diocesan priests taught academic subjects and religion, while Brothers of the Society of Mary (Marianists) from Dayton, OH, taught scientific courses to students in grades 9-12.
In 1918 the school moved into new quarters at 2056 E. 107th St., graduating its first class of 7 students the next spring. In 1922 the Society of Mary took over operation of the school, which then had 750 students. By its 25th anniversary, Cathedral Latin had 850 students and a faculty of 35. Enrollment peaked at 1,200 in the mid-1960s. Efforts to strengthen the school in the late 1960s included joining the Univ. Circle Development Foundation (later UNIV. CIRCLE, INC.), fundraising for scholarships, buying land for new facilities, and enabling Cathedral Latin students to participate in some CWRU classes.
By the late 1970s, declining enrollment (365 in 1979) and rising costs jeopardized the school's future. On 20 Feb. 1979 the Society of Mary announced the school's closing at the end of the academic year. Parents and alumni formed the Committee for the Continuance of Cathedral Latin and planned to operate the school under a nonprofit corporation until rejected by Bp. Jas. A. Hickey. The Cleveland Catholic Diocese sold the school property to the State of Ohio for about $500,000 in 1980, to be used as the site of the William O. Walker worker rehabilitation center. In Aug. 1988, with the support of the Cathedral Latin Alumni Assn., the school merged with the all-female NOTRE DAME ACADEMY in Chardon, OH, and became known as the Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin School. The 1991-92 school year marked the first year of fully coed classes in all 4 high school grade levels at ND-CL.
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