Monday, 06 September, 2010
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The History of Notre Dame
Notre Dame High School, the only Catholic secondary school between Buffalo and Rochester, was the vision of Msgr. Edward J. Ferger, pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and former editor of the Diocese of Buffalo monthly newspaper. Ground-breaking for the $550,000 three floor school was held May 6, 1951. That September, the first class of 58 students – taught by two Sisters of Mercy - began in temporary quarters at St. Anthony’s parochial school.
The present school on Union St. opened on schedule September 3, 1952 when nuns of the Holy Cross order greeted 200 students, nearly half in upper grades from the city’s public schools. The faculty was almost-all religious, Diocesan priests, Consolata fathers, and Felician nuns would teach a family values-based curriculum that included religion, even for the 15-20 percent of students who were not Catholic.
The school, which has graduated nearly 4,000 young men and women, remains steadfast and faithful to its mission as it moves into its second half-century. Since 1991, the former diocesan school, losing students and heavily subsidized by the Diocese of Buffalo, had its future secured when the operation and fund-raising were taken over by a local Board of Trustees, and a NDHS Foundation, both bodies served by local volunteer business and professional men and women.