DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Fort Worth, 1885 — and if you were Catholic and you had children who needed schooling, you were out of luck. Until the Sisters of St.
Mary of Namur arrived and decided that situation simply would not stand. They organized Saint Ignatius Academy, the first Catholic school in Fort Worth, and they did not waste a moment gettin' started. First classes were held in a house — a house they'd purchased from a man named Jacob Smith.
Humble beginnings, sure, but the Sisters were thinkin' bigger. Much bigger. Four stories bigger, to be exact.
They brought in a designer named J. J. Kane, and what Kane drew up was no ordinary schoolhouse.
He gave them a four-story limestone structure — classrooms, a chapel, the whole thing — built in the Victorian Institutional style. Solid. Dignified.
The kind of building that says we are here, and we intend to stay. By 1889, that structure was complete and standing tall in Fort Worth. And stay it did.
School classes were conducted in that limestone building for decades upon decades, all the way until 1962. From a borrowed house to a four-story landmark — the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur built something that outlasted just about everything around it.
What the marker says
The first Catholic School in Fort Worth, St. Ignatius Academy was organized by the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur in 1885. The first classes were held in a house purchased from Jacob Smith. This four-story limestone structure, used for classrooms and chapel, was completed in 1889. J.J. Kane designed the building, a good example of the Victorian Institutional style. School classes were conducted here until 1962.