Saint Mary's College High School

Saint Mary's College High School came into being as part of Saint Mary's College of California, founded in 1863 by the Catholic Church, and put under the auspices of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1868. Saint Mary's is a coeducational Catholic school located in Albany, California, although its postal address is in Berkeley, California.HistoryIn 1853, Joseph Sadoc Alemany was named Archbishop of San Francisco and immediately began to work to strengthen the fledgling system of Catholic education that existed at the time. Among his goals was the establishment of an educational institution for young men with an eye to fostering a home-grown clergy he felt was necessary for the survival of the Church in California. On July 9, 1863, Alemany dedicated the new Saint Mary’s College at the end of Old Mission Road in San Francisco near the Mission Dolores.Early years (1868-1884)The college was founded to educate young men at the grammar school, high school, and college levels. It was unsuccessful in its first five years, and by 1868 its closure was being seriously considered. On August 10, 1868, eight Christian Brothers, led by Brother Justin McMahon, arrived in San Francisco after a month of travel from New York City by steamship, train, and wagon to take over management of Saint Mary’s. Their first year in California was discouraging for the pioneer Brothers: difficult financial and teaching conditions, enrollment of only thirty students, a major earthquake, and a citywide outbreak of smallpox. Still, their efforts that year tripled enrollment, which grew to 240 by 1875. The college soon became the state’s largest institution of higher learning, larger than the University of California at Berkeley, founded in 1868, and Santa Clara University, founded in 1851 by the Jesuit Fathers.