Ursuline High School history

Ursuline High School was established in 1880 at 10th and B Streets in downtown Santa Rosa by eight Ursuline sisters from Brown County, Ohio.

The vibrant history of Ursuline Academy of Wilmington began in 1893 with the relocation of the Ursuline Sisters from Bedford Park in New York City, at the request of the bishop, to occupy a convent and boarding school on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Harrison Street.

With the steadfast commitment to and fearless passion for their mission from the bishop, the sisters successfully opened a Kindergarten in 1895 and added a boys department the following year.

Ursuline Academy is an independent, college-preparatory Catholic high school for young women in grades 9-12 founded by the Ursuline Sisters of Brown County, Ohio in 1896.

The Chauncey Andrews Estate was purchased in February 1919, thus beginning the “Wick Avenue Era.” The Ursulines began a fundraising drive almost immediately upon moving into the Andrews Estate to build a new school that could accommodate 400 students.

Built in 1924, the auditorium served a plethora of purposes over the years, but it is now a beautiful theater and concert hall renamed the Deibel-Morley Arts Center in honor of Sister Rosemary Deibel and Sister Alice Marie Morley.

After the purchase of the Downward Estate, an adjacent property bordering on Franklin Street, further renovations were completed in 1927, ushering in a new year for Ursuline’s 300 students.

A record student body of 622 in 1942 was surpassed the following year by an enrollment of 710.

In 1946, at the invitation of then-Archbishop Richard Cushing, a group of Ursuline Sisters returned to Boston to open Ursuline Academy on Arlington Street to 45 students.

Since the first class graduated from the school on Arlington Street in Boston in 1947, Ursuline Academy has embodied the mission and vision of the Ursuline Order and the inspiration of St Angela Merici.

In 1956 it moved to Ursuline Road on the former Howarth Estate.

In 1957, The Ursuline Order acquired a 28-acre estate in Dedham, Massachusetts; a site which has since been continually upgraded and further developed.

During the turbulent 1960’s when many standards in academics and discipline were questioned, Principal Father Robert Sabatino held the course that his predecessors had established.

Father Ashton was appointed pastor of Saint Luke Parish in 1972 and Thomas F. Carey was named the first lay principal at Ursuline.

In 1975, Ursuline Academy’s Board of Trustees was formed to assume responsibility for the daily operations of the school.

Carey retired in 1982 and was replaced by Doctor Nicholas M. Wolsonovich.

Doctor Wolsonovich became diocesan Superintendent of Schools in 1985 and Ursuline’s leadership was passed to Associate Principal, Father Daniel M. Venglarik.

Ursuline Sixth Form and Wimbledon College have worked in partnership since 1986 and the joint Sixth Form has over 600 students.

A further reorganization of the school took place in 1988 when the Board of Trustees created the position of President of the Academy; Angela M. Boyle ‘53 was the first to hold this position.

The boys’ basketball team won its first state championship in 1994.

When Father Venglarik was named pastor of Saint Charles Parish in 1995, Assistant Principal Patricia Fleming became the tenth principal of Ursuline High School.

In September 2002 the High School became a sixth-form entry 11-19 comprehensive secondary school.

The campus became the site of Roseland Collegiate Prep, a charter high school, and was badly damaged in the Tubbs Fire in October 2017.