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Progressive & Modern Era

St. Anthony Catholic School

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

In early 1907, residents of the Laurel Heights area petitioned the Sisters of the Divine Providence, a French religious order, to open a neighborhood school. The order already operated four local schools and many more throughout Texas and adjoining states. In April 1907, the sisters purchased land from Eleanor Stribling. Sisters St. Stanislaus, Digna, Fidelis and Norbert conducted school in rented houses while planning for a permanent schoolhouse. Prominent local architect Frederick Gaenslen designed the classical revival building completed in 1909. Gaenslen studied at St. Mary’s college and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in Texas he had many commissions from the Catholic Church and related orders. The eight-classroom buff brick building was modeled after the St. Joseph Academy Building in Dallas. An entry portico dominates the main elevation, which also includes arched windows and pilasters. In the brick parapet, projecting gables with decorative friezes flank a raised central arched niche, which holds a statue of St. Anthony and is topped with a stone cross. Local patrons and the St. Anthony seminary supported the school in its early years, and the curriculum and facilities expanded as enrollment grew. Though it was solely an elementary school for much of its history, St. Anthony also included a high school and boarding school in prior years. Enrollment declined in the 1970s, and the sisters announced the school’s intended closing in 1985. Concerned parents and alumni organized a nonprofit group to purchase the property and continue the school. Classes resumed on schedule, and the school continues to operate a century after its founding.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

In 1907, families in San Antonio's Laurel Heights neighborhood asked the Sisters of the Divine Providence, a French teaching order, to open a school; the sisters bought land and taught in rented houses while a permanent home was planned. Architect Frederick Gaenslen designed the eight-classroom, buff-brick Classical Revival building completed in 1909, crowned by a niche holding a statue of St. Anthony. When closure loomed in the 1980s, parents and alumni organized to buy the property and keep the doors open, and the school still operates more than a century on.

Why it matters

St. Anthony's reflects the central role Catholic teaching orders played in educating a growing, immigrant-rich Texas, and its community rescue shows how neighborhoods fought to preserve their own institutions.

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  • · Frederick Gaenslen

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