Holy Cross School
The site of today's Holy Cross School has a history as old as any place in Santa Cruz. From the school website:
"The Daughters of Charity founded Holy Cross School in 1862 as an orphanage. In 1926, the parish built a structure on High Street and a co-educational day school was established for Grades 1 - 12. Holy Cross Elementary School was constructed on the site of the old orphanage in 1958 to relieve crowded conditions in the High Street building. In 1977, the present junior high building was constructed. The first temporary quarters of the original school and orphanage were in the adobe which was the juzgado of Mexican Days. The original boarding school for girls and orphanage fronted Mission Street and its grounds extended back along Emmet Street to School Street. These buildings were left vacant after the opening of the High Street structure, but were torn down in 1944. In 1943 the Daughters of Charity left Santa Cruz and turned over their teaching activities to the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, who lived in the former Henry Willey home at the corner of Mission and Sylvar Streets."
- "Holy Cross School", The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023), Chapter Four, p.88.
- "150 Sylvar Street" [former Henry Willey house], The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023), Chapter Four, p.88.
The current school buildings were erected in evolved from a school for girls established by Sisters of Charity nuns in 1862, in the former Eagle Hotel (the former juzgado). The Sisters later acquired the adjacent William Thompson residential parcel and, later still, the adjacent Temperance Hall site. The school is administered by Holy Cross parish, and its site now fronts at 150 Emmett Street (across from Mission Plaza). School grounds extend along Emmett Street from Mission Street to School Street. The separate Holy Cross High School was in the High Street building mentioned in the quote above. That 1926 building remains as space for various parish activities, and the gym is still used for basketball.
- The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023), Chapter Four, p.96.
- See also Holy Cross church and Mission Santa Cruz.
