Academy of the Sacred Heart
About this property
The Grosse Pointe Academy is an independent day school located at 171 Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Originally known as the Academy of the Sacred Heart, the campus buildings were designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The school serves preschool through middle school (lower secondary school). The site on which the Grosse Pointe Academy now sits was originally a French ribbon farm running from Lake St. Clair to Ridge Road. In 1867, the Society of the Sacred Heart, an order of cloistered nuns, obtained the property, and the next year a small public school was built on the property. In 1885, the nuns planned the construction of a boarding school for young ladies, teaching grades K–12, on the property. The school was built in 1887 along the property line separating the academy from Saint Paul's, so that the nuns could enter the building from within the property and the students could enter from the parking lot of St. Paul's. The remainder of the property continued to be a self-sustaining farm. In 1899, the chapel was added. In the late 1920s, recognizing the need for more space, the sisters sold off the portion of the farm beyond Grosse Pointe Boulevard and used the proceeds to build a new education building and renovate the chapel. Farming continued on the property until the 1940s. In 1969, the Sisters deeded the property to a lay Board of Trustees, who continued the educational mission of the school as the Grosse Pointe Academy, a co-educational day school. The Grosse Pointe Academy is situated on a long strip of land between Grosse Pointe Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive on Lake Saint Clair, and directly adjacent to Saint Paul Catholic Church (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan). Seven buildings are situated on the site, of which five are contributing structures to the historic district: an 1855 farmhouse, four large educational buildings dating from 1885 to 1930. The last two structures, a 1939 headmaster's house and a maintenance shed, are non-contributing.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Academy of the Sacred Heart
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Questions about this property
When was Academy of the Sacred Heart listed on the National Register?
Academy of the Sacred Heart was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 24, 1987.
What type of historic resource is Academy of the Sacred Heart?
Academy of the Sacred Heart is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Academy of the Sacred Heart?
The period of significance for Academy of the Sacred Heart is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near Academy of the Sacred Heart?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Academy of the Sacred Heart will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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