On This Site Catholic Education In Western Maryland Began

On This Site Catholic Education In Western Maryland Began. . The De La Salle Christian brothers came to Cumberland in 1851 and opened an elementary school as one of the very early establishments of the Christian brothers in the United States in the first Carroll Hall on this property at the request of Father Leonard Obermeyer. They remained in Cumberland at that time only until 1853., The Sisters of Mercy of the Baltimore Province, at the request of Monsignor Edward Brennan, came to Cumberland in 1862 to establish an elementary school for girls. Because of the Civil War no attempt was made to build a permanent building until September 23,1866 when the cornerstone was laid for this building as the Saint Edward Academy for Girls. It was also the sisters convent building, a classroom wing from the rear of the building extended to the area of approximately the center of the present parish center. The Sisters of Mercy withdrew from the school in June of 1888. The classroom wing was removed to prepare for the construction of the Saint Patrick School building in 1923., The brothers of Mary (Marianists) arrived in Cumberland to teach the boys of the parish at the request of Father Edward Brennan in an elementary school established in the first Carroll Hall in June of 1882. They withdrew from the school on June of 1888. The Sisters of Saint Joseph came to Cumberland from Ebensburg in Cambria County, Pennsylvania in September of 1888 and took over the Saint Edward School for Girls in this building, and the school for boys in the original Carroll Hall building. These two schools remained in operation until June of 1907 when the Sisters of Saint Joseph withdrew from Cumberland., Monsignor Edward Wunder then offered the elementary schools to the school Sisters of Notre Dame from Baltimore who arrived in Cumberland on August 19, 1907 to take over all catholic primary education in the parish of Saint Patrick. The sisters conducted a combined school (except for the sixth to eighth grade boys) in the former Saint Edward School building from that time until the building of the new Saint Patrick School building for the beginning of the Fall term of 1923, the corner stone being laid on May 17, 1923., On September 9, 1907 the De La Salle Christian Brothers returned to Cumberland and began the instruction of boys from the sixth to the twelfth grades in the La Salle Institute on the northeast corner of Fayette and Smallwood Streets with twenty eight students. In 1909 the Laing residence on the southwest corner was obtained and the school opened there in September of that year. In 1924 the brothers dropped the sixth to eighth grades from their school and located La Salle High School in the new Carroll Hall that had been erected as a parish center on June 23, 1903. La Salle High School was merged into the newly opened. Bishop Walsh High School on Haystack Mountain in 1966. Carroll Hall was razed in October of 1987., In 1923 the school Sisters of Notre Dame together with Monsignor Edward Wunder opened a high school for girls called Catholic Girls Central High School in the newly constructed school building on this campus. Catholic Girls Central High School was merged into the newly opened Bishop Walsh High School in September of 1966., In 1981, as the population of Cumberland declined, the parishes cooperated in the establishment of Saint John Neumann School. Grades kindergarten through three remained on the Saint Patrick Campus. Grades four through eight were located on the SS. Peter and Paul Campus, and the sixth, seventh and eighth grades became part of Bishop Walsh Middle-High School in 1985 and primary grades were centered at the SS. Peter and Paul Campus and the Saint Patrick Campus ceased functioning as an elementary school., In 2002 all Catholic education in the Cumberland area was located at Bishop Walsh School on Haystack Mountain, a kindergarten to 12th grade facility., Bishop Andrew J. McDonald-Former Bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas Monsignor Thomas R. Bevan-Pastor