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The story
Founded by Edward Fenwick on Oct 17, 1831.1
Downtown origins
St. Xavier, once a part of Xavier University, traces its history to the Athenaeum at Seventh and Sycamore streets in Downtown Cincinnati. The institute, which included a seminary and lay college, was dedicated by the first bishop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev. Edward D. Fenwick, O.P., on October 17, 1831. It was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Just a week later, the city's first public high school, Woodward College, opened its doors. The Athenaeum stood until 1890, next door to The Catholic Telegraph's printing press.
In 1840, at the behest of Bishop Fenwick, the Society of Jesus began operating the Athenaeum's lay college, which it renamed St. Xavier College, after St. Francis Xavier. The Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) took over the seminary in 1841, and the college was granted a 30-year state charter in 1842. St. Xavier College originally offered six years of integrated primary, secondary, and post-secondary education, in keeping with the Ratio Studiorum and the original Jesuit college in Messina, Sicily, predecessor to the University of Messina. Day schoolers came from all over the city, while boarders hailed from the Deep South, Mexico, and Cuba. School closed on Thursdays and Sundays until 1917. Originally, until 1851, admission was granted to students ages 8 to 16. Later, a tuition-free elementary school division opened to complement the college. In 1844, the school's elementary division opened a boarding school campus in Walnut Hills but was forced to close its doors two years later and return downtown.
In the 1850s, falling enrollment, threat of bankruptcy, and cholera brought about proposals to close the high school division. Jesuit schools had opened in the South, contributing to declining enrollment. The situation was worsened by the local anti-Catholic and Know Nothing sentiment that culminated in the Cincinnati riot of 1853. Beginning the fall of 1854, St. Xavier stopped admitting boarders altogether, becoming a primarily local institute, to reduce the financial burden on its students' families.
On May 7, 1869, St. Xavier's charter was extended in perpetuity by an act of the General Assembly. Later that year, the school began distinguishing between academic and collegiate departments. Three years of high school would be followed by one year each of the humanities, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy.
At the close of the 19th century, St. Xavier's athletic teams competed in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Cincinnati.
Expansion and separation
In 1910, St. Xavier College transitioned to an American-style eight-year program. Some students took typing classes at the St. Xavier Commercial School nearby. On October 1, 1906, another branch campus opened in Walnut Hills. This time, St. Xavier Branch High School or "St. Xavier on the Hill" served first- and second-year high school students. Tuition was $60 downtown and $80 at the suburban location (equivalent to $2,150 and $2,867, respectively, in 2025). Classes were held in Walnut Hills until December 1911.
In 1912, the Branch High School moved into the Avondale Athletic Club in North Avondale and became Xavier Academy. On September 10, 1919, Xavier Academy closed as the College of Arts and Sciences moved into its campus. However, science classes remained at the high school downtown, for the time being, as did the evening classes from the Schools of Law, Commerce, and Sociology.
In the late 1920s, St. Xavier High School began competing against Elder, Purcell, and Roger Bacon high schools in baseball, basketball, and football. On October 6, 1931, the four schools founded the Greater Cincinnati League, known today as the Greater Catholic League.
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On August 4, 1930, the college became Xavier University, to reflect its transition to the American university model and garner more prestige ahead of its centennial the next year. St. Xavier High School formally split with St. Xavier College in 1934, with Fr. Aloysius J. Diersen, S.J., serving as the High School's first president, but the two schools continued to share resources. Xavier's School of Education conducted practice teaching at St. Xavier. Also, St. Xavier's senior classes studied under Xavier professors in Avondale from 1944 to 1946, to compensate for Xavier's loss of cadets from the Army Air Corps 30th College Training Detachment during World War II.
Finneytown relocation and recent history
St. Xavier began its move from the original location in downtown Cincinnati in April 1955 when its president, Fr. John J. Benson, S.J., purchased a 62-acre (0.25 km2) plot in Finneytown. In September 1960, St. Xavier High School moved into its newly built facilities, designed by local architect Albert Walters, in unincorporated Springfield Township. At the time, the facilities were nicknamed the "Finneytown Hilton" for their price tag of over $4 million (equivalent to $32.4 million in 2024). The original high school building was later torn down and is now the site of a parking lot.
In 1965, St. Xavier produced its first three African-American graduates, Phil Cox, Michael Walker, and Peter D. Samples. The same school year, Myron Kilgore was hired as the school's first African-American faculty member.
Since its move away from downtown, St. Xavier has expanded its facilities dramatically. In 1969, the school added Keating Natatorium, which featured a $500,000 Olympic-size swimming pool (equivalent to $3.27 million in 2024). St. Xavier's worship space was replaced by Xavier Hall, a multipurpose facility, in 1986. In 1998, a $12.6 million expansion project moved science classes from the basement into a new, three-story wing and added the Holy Companions Chapel and a dedicated intramural gym. During the 2003–04 school year, St. Xavier renovated the football stadium around Ballaban Field, which was built in the late 1960s, and renamed it Ballaban Field at St. Xavier Stadium. Along with the stadium, the school opened a 500-seat theater space, as well as a black box theater, art studios, and renovated music rooms. A new track field replaced the track that once surrounded Ballaban Field. St. Xavier also converted the former Girls' Town of America location across the street into its "South Campus", which includes new baseball and soccer fields. The school added a makerspace in the fall of 2017.
On December 15, 2017, St. Xavier named its first lay president, Tim Reilly, who succeeded Fr. Tim A. Howe, S.J., in July 2018. Until then, all of St. Xavier's presidents had been ordained members of the Society of Jesus.
In 2018, two priests affiliated with St. Xavier during the mid-1960s were named in the Midwest Jesuits' list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse. In 2020, the school removed a chaplain upon receiving allegations of abuse by him during the 1990s.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Xavier returned to in-person learning as soon as the stay-at-home order was lifted. The school credited this policy with increased enrollment.
In March 2021, RDI Corporation, a Blue Ash–based outsourcing firm, gave the school $1 million to endow its football program. In recognition, St. Xavier Stadium was renamed RDI Stadium. In August 2021, Keating Natatorium reopened after a $5.5 million renovation.
In 2022, the Midwest Jesuits established Xavier Jesuit Academy at a former parochial school in Bond Hill to serve underprivileged students in the third through eighth grades. Its opening on August 14, 2024, marked the first time the Jesuits provided elementary school education in Cincinnati since St. Xavier Elementary School in the 1850s.
From Wikipedia’s article on St. Xavier High School (Ohio), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5