St. Paul's School history

Colet’s works, mainly unpublished until the 19th-century editions of J.H. Lupton (1867–76), include commentaries on Romans and Corinthians and treatises on the sacraments and the church.

In 1868 this chapel was enlarged to accommodate a growing student body by cutting the building at the intersection of the choir and nave, moving the nave thirty feet toward the pond, and adding transepts on each side.

1870: Two students, Fannie Hayes and A. P. Warren, became the first two students to graduate from Saint Paul high school.

1879: Saint Paul High School has eight teachers and a principal, which this high school became known as Central High School.

The Chapel of St Peter and St Paul The Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, as it now stands, represents a continuous development from its beginnings in 1886.

The Knox Memorial Organ The new Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, begun in 1888 to the designs of Henry Vaughan, originally housed a three-manual Geo.

The tower, from Vaughn’s original design, was added in 1894 as a memorial to Mary Bowman Coit, wife of the first Rector, the Reverend Doctor Henry Augustus Coit.

As a part of the Lasallian tradition, Saint Paul’s School traces its origins to 1911, when the Benedictines of Saint Joseph Abbey purchased Dixon Academy in Covington.

In approximately 1915, the Barton Heights Catholic Church acquired a small frame building on Fendall Avenue for services of their own.

In 1918, the Benedictines sold the school to the Christian Brothers.

In studying the international relations part of the course, pupils consider how the peace was created in 1919 how within a very short period of time, Europe was engulfed in another conflict.

On August 6, 1922, St Paul’s Parish dedicated a new church building on North Avenue and in the following September, St Paul’s School opened its doors in the rear of the church to ninety-five students and to five sisters from the Order of St Benedict.

During that time, St Paul’s School expanded and in 1926, the school moved to a building on Fendall Avenue.

In 1928, the noted architect Ralph Adams Cram was charged with enlarging the Chapel to accommodate a growing school, and the building was cut in two, the altar sanctuary moved eastward, and two bays of windows added in the choir section.

The 1930 chamber expansion had created temperature inequality and stratification, and the organ needed plenty of regular tuning to keep pace with the shifting climate of the tempestuous New Hampshire winters.

The Houghton Memorial Carillon (Gillet and Johnson, 1933)The tower of the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul houses one of the few intact instruments in the United States by British foundry Gillett and Johnston.

By the early 1940’s, St Paul’s was outgrowing the North Avenue location.

Under the guidance of Monsignor Thomas E. O’Connell, a series of fundraising drives began and in 1950, St Paul’s present church building on Chamberlayne Avenue was constructed and dedicated.

A ministry of St Paul Church, St Paul Catholic School opened on September 3, 1952, staffed by the Notre Dame of Cleveland Sisters.

Eventually another chapter of the project formed, combining an effort to reinstate the 1953 console (which the School had wisely stored), a new solid-state switching system, and removal and sale of the Positiv.

Each year thereafter, the school added a grade of students, graduating its first 8th grade class in 1957.

Doctor Clifford E. Nobes, former rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church, founded St Paul's Day School in 1963.

1964: Saint Paul Public Schools addressed the concerns of racial imbalance in the school district by developing resolutions that students have equal educational access.

Since it was re-introduced in 1969, the ceremony today takes place in May and is purely ceremonial, incorporating prize giving for boys in the final two years of the school.

1970-73: Arts Education at SPPS was being evaluated, which a consideration to add more arts program to the schools.

1977: The school expands into the nearby Rollins Building, an unoccupied KCMO public school.

1991: Saint Paul’s high school graduation rate is 73%, among the highest in the country.

1994: The current three-story school structure opens.

1998: A new three-acre athletic field is dedicated and opens for student use.

The Positiv pipework and Nave Trumpet were removed during the renovations of 2001-02; the Positiv pipework was not reinstalled at that time.

In 2002, the school obtained its own grant of arms from the College of Arms consisting of the arms of Dean Colet surrounded by a gold bordure, upon which the crossed swords of the Dean of St Paul's are repeated.

Stowe in 2007, the console had grown increasingly unreliable.

2009: A newly expanded North Wing addition opens, housing toddler - kindergarten classrooms, an auditorium, and a cafeteria.

2019: Renovations are completed on the school's three-story south building, offering flexible learning spaces, an expanded science lab, and new art rooms for 1st - 8th grade students.

Form of 2020 Celebration