Bishop DuBourg High School

Infobox Secondary school
name = Bishop DuBourg High School
native_name =

motto = "Faith in Christ...Service to Others"
established = 1950
type = private, co-ed
category_label =
category =
gender_label =
gender = Co ed
affiliations =
affiliation = Roman Catholic
president = Kirk Boschert
chairman_label =
chairman = Steve Frank
principal = Bridget Timoney
asst principal =
vice principal =
campus director =
headmaster =
dean =
rector =
founder = Archbishop Joseph Ritter
chaplain =
head_label =
head =
faculty = 45
teaching_staff =
enrollment = 714 (fall 2008)
enrolment =
students =
grades_label =
grades = 9-12
address = 5850 Eichelberger Street
city = St. Louis
state = Missouri
province =
country = USA
district =
oversight_label =
oversight =
accreditation =
campus =
colors = Scarlet and White
colours =
athletics =
mascot = Cavaliers
emblem =
yearbook = The Cavalier
newspaper =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
testname =
testaverage =
National_ranking =
website =
nickname =The Cavs
footnotes =
picture =
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Bishop DuBourg High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in St. Louis, Missouri. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis.

Background

Bishop DuBourg High School came into being from plans conceived in 1949 by the newly-appointed superintendent of St Louis Archdiocesan High Schools, Reverend James T. Curtin. The plan called for a new high school to be built on a seventeen-acre tract of land at Clifton and Eichelberger, which had been purchased by the late Cardinal Glennon. In June 1950, Cardinal Ritter (then Archbishop) announced the plans for the eighth archdiocesan high school, the largest in the system, to have an enrollment capacity of 1,600. Archbishop Ritter officiated at the groundbreaking ceremonies on May 18, 1952. Reverend Mother Borgia, then Superior General of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, who had been asked to take responsibility for the operation of the school, assisted him.

The new school, designed by architects, Joseph D. Murphy and Eugene J. Mackey, was designed as a "layer cake" building with the lowest floor hidden behind a fifteen-foot slope. The huge, three million-dollar structure was designed to be as aesthetic as possible within the limits of practicality and purpose. Classrooms were smaller in size to prevent over-crowdedness; glass bricks and overhead windows provided the brightness of natural lighting; "noise" areas were separated from classroom areas by buffer zones. The building was designed to accommodate a grade on each floor, with principals or coordinators in charge of each grade. The school would function as four schools within one building, thus allowing for a more personal relationship between the 1600 students and the floor director. Bishop DuBourg High School was an architectural marvel, highlighted in Architectural Digest as the example for a new generation of educational facilities. Bishop DuBourg High School provided the standard for many high schools built across the United States during the late 1950s through the 1970s.

The building was completed shortly after the beginning of the 1953-1954 school year. On September 12, 1954, Archbishop Ritter dedicated the new school. At the time of the dedication, it was already evident that the newly dedicated school would have to be enlarged. In October 1955, work began on a twenty room annex that would increase the school’s capacity to 2,000 students.

As an archdiocesan, comprehensive, coeducational high school, Bishop DuBourg serves students of all abilities. Bishop DuBourg High School students have moved into all possible occupations including medicine, law, politics, business, education, public service, and several have given their lives in the service of their country. Bishop DuBourg High School graduates are richer as a result of their high school years, which helped them to comprehend the depth, breadth and height of human living.

Notes and references