Christian Brothers High School is a private, Catholic, college-preparatory high school in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California. It is located within the Diocese of Sacramento and was founded by the De La Salle Christian Brothers in 1876. , the school enrolled 1,150 students drawn from approximately 75 local parochial, private, and public elementary and middle schools.
History
St. Patrick's Institute and Sacramento Institute (1876-1896) In the 1870s, Fr. Patrick Scanlan, the pastor of St. Rose's Parish in Sacramento, initiated fundraising and social efforts with the purpose of opening a large high school to serve the city's Catholic youth. His parish already had a small and rather informal elementary school but lacked a secondary school. The De La Salle Christian Brothers were asked to teach at the school, and they accepted the offer. After around two years of fundraising, Fr. Scanlan began construction of a building to house the school on an empty plot of parish land. The new school was three stories tall, with Georgian details, and surrounded by tall elm trees. The Sacramento Union described the structure upon its creation as:
plain in style, yet not cold and formal. It is of wood with rustic finish and has ornamental arched openings and tasteful trimmings.
On the first floor were a kitchen and dining room. The second floor held two classrooms and two 'study parlors.' Two more classrooms, boarders' quarters, and the Brothers' quarters were located on the third floor. Another portion of the building held three uncompleted classrooms. Each classroom had space to hold 65 students.
The Archbishop of San Francisco (Sacramento was not its own diocese yet), Joseph Sadoc Alemany officiated at the dedication ceremony, blessing and dedicating what was then known as St. Patrick's Institute.
On 17 July 1876, St. Patrick's opened for its first day of classes, with seven Brothers and 200 students. By the end of the school year, 50 more students had enrolled, and the three unfinished classrooms were completed out of necessity. Subjects taught were the standard ones, with special emphasis placed on languages, art and music, a curricular feature not found in the Sacramento Public Schools. The tuition varied according to each family's respective financial situation, and students whose families could not pay were given a free ride on behalf of the school. In the schools early years, there was no access to electricity or a sewage system. These were added in 1895 and 1890, respectively. In 1879, St. Patrick's Institute was renamed Sacramento Institute. The school experienced tremendous growth in the following years, as families recognized it for its excellent education but also the increasing dismay with the public school system at the time.
Christian Brothers College (1896-1924) In 1896, the school was once again renamed, this time to Christian Brothers College, a name meant to reflect the institution's great emphasis on advanced secondary learning in a classical, rather than technical, curricular format.
During the 1890s, the De La Salle Brothers in the United States became increasingly at odds with their more traditional European, and especially French, counterparts, over which educational style the Brothers should espouse. The American Brothers had, for years, been instructing students in classical subjects such as music, art, business skills, Greek and Latin. The French Brothers disapproved of this, holding that the Brothers should hold to their roots, teaching practical subjects to working-class students. In 1894 the Congregation Chapter had banned the teaching of languages and ordered the classical departments of their schools closed. In 1921, the Pope nullified this ban, and classical education at the school resumed. Because of this ban, the college developed a technical program to replace the classical courses.
In 1898, the College Director, Br. Ambrose O'Malley died while sailing to France, and was replaced by Br. Vellesian Mallon. The new Director spearheaded plans to expand the physical campus of the school to accommodate the growing student body. When he departed for a new assignment two years later, the plans were still on paper. With $5,000 from a wealthy donor, the school added a new wing. However, this was not enough to both contain the growing enrollment and maintain the aging building. During the early 20th century, the college facilities went into decline. Brother Vivian Melody, Director from 1919 until 1922, had the foundation reinforced and the building painted. Still, this was but a short-term repair. In 1919 alone, three small fires struck the school, causing little damage but acting as a 'wakeup call' to the college leadership.