Ursuline Academy

Duane's take

The marker's the one doing the talkin' here — I'm just along to make sure you hear every word of it. Now, back in 1874, Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis had his eye on North Texas. The area was growing fast, and the Bishop had a mind to plant a Catholic school right in the middle of all that growth.

So he did what any determined man of the cloth would do — he assigned six Ursuline nuns, based out of Galveston, to the task. Six women, one mission, and a region that was still finding its own feet. In January of that year, Bishop Dubuis himself traveled with the sisters to Dallas.

Didn't just send them off with his blessing and a wave — he went with them, helped them get the doors open. Now, when you imagine the first home of what would become a storied institution, you might picture something grand. Stone columns, maybe.

Long corridors. The kind of building that whispers permanence. What they got was a small four-room frame cottage near Sacred Heart Church in downtown Dallas.

Four rooms. That's it. But the pastor of that church, Father Joseph Martiniere, worked closely with the nuns to get the school established, and on February 2, 1874, Ursuline Academy officially opened its doors.

Seven students walked in. Seven. Something about that number is worth sitting with for a moment.

Seven students in a four-room cottage, and the people running it already knew they were building something that would outlast them. And they were right. Enrollment grew.

Plans were made. By 1884, the academy had outgrown downtown entirely and moved to a new brick building — a real building this time — situated at Bryan, Haskell, and Live Oak streets. That building carried the school for decades, all the way until 1949, when the academy relocated to this very site.

Along the way, Ursuline was doing more than teaching reading and arithmetic. In 1918, one of the city's first kindergartens opened as part of the academy's program. Think about that — while Dallas was still a relatively young city, these nuns were already asking what the youngest learners needed.

The grammar school section eventually ran its course and was discontinued in 1976, and from that point forward, the academy turned its full attention to high school education. Generations of Dallas girls have walked these halls — from those first seven students in a four-room cottage in 1874, all the way through to today. That's not a small thing.

That's a city growing up alongside a school that refused to stay small.

What the marker says

Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis, wishing to establish a Catholic school in the rapidly-growing area of North Texas, assigned six Galveston-based Ursuline nuns to the task in 1874. In January of that year Bishop Dubuis traveled with the sisters to Dallas and assisted them in opening the school. The first facility available to the new academy was a small four-room frame cottage located near Sacred Heart Church in downtown Dallas. The church's pastor, Father Joseph Martiniere, worked closely with the nuns in establishing the school, which officially opened on February 2, 1874, with seven students. As enrollment grew, plans were made to build a larger facility. In 1884 the school moved out of the downtown area to a new brick building located at Bryan, Haskell, and Live Oak streets. That building served the academy until 1949, when the school relocated to this site. Generations of Dallas girls have attended Ursuline Academy. One of the city's first kindergartens opened as part of the academy's program in 1918. Its grammar school section was discontinued in 1976, and the emphasis after that time was placed on high school education.