Tag Archives: St. Patrick’s School

In 2017, a generous patron of the Library of Virginia donated several issues of the Patrician, the student newspaper of Richmond’s St. Patrick’s School. The issues added to the Library’s collection, published from 1946 to 1955, provide a glimpse of post-war life in Richmond through the lens of young writers. The papers also offer a unique historical record of one of Richmond’s treasured and bygone institutions, St. Patrick’s School.  

On September 3, 1866, only a little over a year after the Civil War’s end, St. Patrick’s Female Academy opened its doors in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood. In a Daily Dispatch article, “Catholic Schools on Church Hill,” published November 12, 1866, the Dispatch reported three Catholic Schools in the area: the Academy of Visitation, the School of the Sisters of Charity and a school run by St. Patrick’s Church, which had seventy students. “At these schools,” it explained, “scholars who are unable to pay for tuition (whether they are Protestants or Catholics) are received free of pay.”

Initially St. Patrick’s was located in the 100 block of North 25^th Street, but in 1914 James Fox & Son constructed a larger school and adjacent housing for the sisters at 26^th and Grace Streets. Designed by distinguished Richmond architect Marcellus Eugene Wright, Sr., the Times Dispatch described the new St. Patrick’s Academy as “one of the most modern [buildings] in the city.” Wright designed several buildings of note in Virginia, including the Chamberlin Hotel in Hampton, the George Washington Hotel in Winchester, and the Hotel John Marshall, William Byrd Hotel and Altria (formerly the Mosque) Theatre in Richmond.

The Altria Theatre (formerly The Mosque), designed by Marcellus Eugene Wright, Sr.

St. Patrick’s School, designed by Marcellus E. Wright, Sr. Photo by Clement Britt.
http://www.richmond.com/realestate/features/richmond-neighborhoods/st-patrick-s-place-how-a-historic-building-went-from/article_e7640a28-2c2b-11e7-9f9c-9b824c6429bb.html

In 1922, St. … read more »